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COMEDY  OF  CONVOCATION 


THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH, 


IN    two    scenes: 


EDITED   BY 

ARCHDEACON  CHASUBLE,  D.  D. 

Thovyvas    V.  M»«h»N.   'SIS'- 

THIRTIETH   THOUSAND. 


"  Iva  ri  ye/.owv  eito  nai  irepl  yc'Aotov  irpay/iaro-. 
"Give  me  leave  to  be  merry  on  a  merry  subject.'' 

S.  Greg.  Naz. 


New  York  : 
THE    CATHOLIC    PUBLICATION     SOCIETY    CO. 


■  - 


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THE  BISHOPS  OF  THE  PAN-ANGLICAN  SYNOD, 


hcs«  ^ages 


ARE    RESPECTFULLY    DEDICATED 


Bt 


THE    EDITOR. 


255262 


DRAMATIS    PERSONJE. 


/  Blunt. 
I  Pliable. 


VERY  REVEREND  DEANS     .     (  Primitive. 

Pompous, 
critical. 


VENERABLE  ARCH Dl 


('  JOLI 

BACONS   J  The 


Jolly. 

ory. 
Chasuble 


REVEREND  DOCTORS 


Easy. 

Viewy. 

Candour. 


REVERENDS 


Athanasius  Bknedict. 

Lavender  Kidds. 

The  Prolocutor. 

TnE  Professor  of  History. 

The  Professor  of  Theology. 


SCENE  I 


THK    J  K 11 II  SAL  EM    CHAMBER 


SCENE  II. 


DR.    EASY'S   DRAWING-ROOM. 


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S     5      J 

'       '        „'       '       "        •  '  V  , 


SCENE    I. 


THE    JERUSALEM    CHAMBER. 


DK.  EASY  rose  to  propose  the  question  of  which  he  had  given 
notice  at  the  previous  sitting  of  Convocation: — "  Would  it  be  con- 
sidered heresy  in  the  Church  of  England  to  deny  the  existence  of 
God  ?  "  It  had  occurred  to  him  that  he  should  perhaps  adopt  a 
form  more  convenient  for  the  present  debate,  if  he  put  the  question 
thus: — "Would  a  clergyman,  openly  teaching  that  there  was  no 
God,  be  liable  to  suspension  ?  " 

ARCHDEACON  JOLLY  thought  not.  What  the  Church  of 
England  especially  prided  herself  upon  was  the  breadth  of  her 
views.  No  view  could  be  broader  than  the  one  just  stated,  and 
therefore  none  more  likely  to  meet  with  the  sanction  of  the  Privy 
Council,  which,  he  apprehended,  was  the  real  point  to  be  kept  in 
view  in  the  discussion  of  this  interesting  question.     (Hear,  hear.) 

DEAN  BLUNT  concurred  in  the  opinion  that  Breadth  and  the 
Privy  Council  were  kindred  ideas.  Still,  it  might  be  asked,  could 
even  tne  doctrinal  elasticity  of  that  tribunal  become  sufficiently 
expansive  to  embrace  the  enormous  hypothesis  of  his  learned 
friend  ?  He  ventured  to  think  that  it  could.  Let  it  be  supposed 
that  some  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England — say  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury — should   publicly  teach   that  there  was  no 


<  <     •    ' 


10  THE    COMEDY    OF    CONVOCATION 

God.  The  case  being  brought  before  the  Privy  Council,  it  might 
be  reasonably  assumed  that  that  supreme  Arbiter  of  Anglican 
doctrine  would  deliver  some  such  judgment  as  the  following: — 

"Wo  find  that  the  Church  of  England  is  not  opposed  to 
the  existence  of  a  Clod.  At  the  same  time,  we  cannot 
overlook  the  fact  that  the  nineteenth  Article,  in  affirm- 
ing that  all  churches,  even  the  Apostolic,  have  erred  in 
matters  of  faith,  obviously  implies  that  the  Church  of 
England  may  err  also  in  the  same  way.  Therefore  the 
1  Church  of  England  may  err  in  teaching  that  there  is 

[  a  God.     We  conclude,  that  whilst,  on  the  one  hand, 

the  Archbishop  has  taken  an  extreme  or  one-sided  view 
of  the  teaching  of  the  Church ;  on  the  other,  for  the 
reason  assigned,  it  is  undoubtedly  open  to  every  cler- 
gyman either  to  believe  in  or  to  deny  the  existence  of 
a  God." 

AKCHDEACON  THEORY  would  be  disposed  cordially  to  ap- 
prove the  judgment  which  the  learned  Dean  anticipated.  He  had 
always  maintained  that  it  was  the  duty  of  every  Anglican  to  doubt 
the  existence  of  God.  (Uproar.)  Let  him  not  be  misunderstood. 
Speaking  for  himself,  he  had  a  moral  and  intellectual  conviction 
that  there  was  a  God.  He  was  not  disputing  the  objective  truth 
of  the  existence  of  a  God :  about  that  he  could  not  suppose  that  a 
single  member  of  Convocation  could  entertain  the  most  transitory 
doubt.  He  was  speaking  only  of  their  duty  as  members  of  the 
Church  of  England,  and  not  at  all  of  their  obligation  as  Christians; 
two  things  which  might  happen  in  a  particular  case  to  be  as  wide 
apart  as  the  poles,  and  to  involve  distinct  and  opposite  responsi- 
bilities. Now,  as  members  of  the  Church  of  England,  he  believed 
it  was  their  duty  to.  doubt,  not  only  the  existence  of  God,  but  also 
every  separate  article  which  the  Church  of  England  now  taught, 
or  might  teach  hereafter ;  and  the  more  emphatically  the  Church  of 
England  appeared  to  teach,  the  more  imperative  wras  their  duty  to 
doubt.  For,  referring;  to  the  ingenious  argument  which  Dean  Blunt 
had  put  into  the  mouth  of  their  national  oracle,  it  was  clear  that 
the  Church  of  England,  in  denying  her  own  infallibility,  laid  all  her 
members  under  the  religious  obligation  of  doubting  everything  she 
taught.  Fallibility,  properly  defined,  was  not  simply  liability  to 
err,  it  was  the  s'ate  of  error.     As  infallibility  is  a  state  of  certainty, 


IN    THE    ENGLISH    CHURCH.  11 

which  does  not  admit  of  error;  so  fallibility  is  a  state  of  doubt, 
which  does  not  admit  of  conviction.  Now,  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, in  proclaiming  her  own  fallibility,  did  so  with  a  peremptori- 
ness,  which  elevated  this  part  of  her  teaching,  and  this  alone,  to 
the  dignity  of  dogma.  For  whereas  in  propounding  other  Angli- 
can tenets,  she  so  adjusted  her  definitions  of  doctrine  as  to  leave 
the  choice  of  possible  and  opposite  interpretations  to  the  discretion 
of  her  members;  when  speaking  of  this,  the  fundamental  axiom 
of  her  whole  theological  system,  she  rose  for  the  moment  to  the 
authority  of  a  Teacher,  and  consented  to  put  on  the  robe  of  infalli- 
bility, in  order  to  promulgate  with  greater  force  the  dogma  of  her 
own  liability  to  error. 

He  would  solicit  attention  to  the  logical  results  of  this  axiom 
of  the  Anglican  creed.  Where  there  is  no  infallibility,  there  can 
be  nothing  certain,  as  the  Church  of  England  wisely  intimates,  ex- 
cept, of  course,  the  obligation  of  doubting.  Consequently,  it  is  one 
and  the  same  thing  to  say  that  we  ought  to  deny  the  Church's 
infallibility,  and  that  we  ought  to  doubt  what  the  Church  teaches. 
Now,  the  Church  of  England  teaches  that  there  is  a  Cod.  There- 
fore it  is  the  duty  of  every  Anglican  to  doubt  the  existence  of  a 
God.  And  what  is  true  of  this  article  of  belief  is  true  of  every 
other.  Thus,  if  the  Church  of  England  appear  to  teach  the  neces- 
sity of  Baptism,  at  the  same  time  that  she  loudly  declares  her  own 
fallibility  in  judging  of  that  necessity,  it  was  their  duty  and  priv- 
ilege,  (as  the  Privy  Council  had  recently  ruled,)  to  doubt  the  neces- 
sity of  Baptism.  And  if  the  Church  of  England  appear  to  teach 
that  she  herself  is  a  true  Church,  at  the  same  time  that  she  pro- 
claims her  own  fallibility  in  judging  whether  she  be  a  true  Church 
or  no,  and  even  adds  that  the  truest  Churches  have  at  all  times 
grossly  erred,  it  was  their  duty  to  doubt  that  she  was  a  true 
Church.  They  had  no  choice  about  the  matter.  It  was  their  duty 
to  doubt;  and  no  one  who  did  not  doubt  every  doctrine  of  his 
Church  could  be  said  to  comprehend  her  nature  or  to  be  animated 
by  her  spirit.  This,  then,  was  his  answer  to  the  question  before 
the  House :  "  Would  it  be  heresy  in  an  Anglican  to  deny  the  ex- 
istence of  God?"  He  replied  that  it  might  be  heresy  to  deny  the 
fact,  but  that  it  was  the  plainest  of  all  duties  to  doubt  it. 

And  here  he  would  hazard  one  other  observation  on  what  he  had 
ventured  to  call  the  cardinal  doctrine  of  the  Church's  fallibility. 


12  THE    COMEDY    OF   CONVOCATION 

It  was  not  uncommon  in  these  days  for  Anglicans  to  become  Ro- 
man Catholics.  Did  he  blame  them?  As  a  Protestant  he  must 
answer,  Yes  ;  as  an  Anglican,  No.  He  was  willing  to  believe  that 
they  were  guided  in  that  act  mainly  by  their  unconscious  respect 
for  the  teaching  of  the  English  Church.  For  it  was  obvious  that 
all  who  are  docile  to  the  teaching  of  that  Church  must  be  supremely 
devoted  to  her  dogma  of  fallibility,  since  that  dogma  is  evidently 
the  most  fruitful  in  its  consequences,  as  well  as  the  most  clearly 
defined,  in  the  whole  range  of  her  theology.  But  it  was  equally 
clear  that  as  long  as  an  ^Anglican  remained  in  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, he  could  give  no  adequate  proof  of  his  belief  in  this  essential 
dogma  of  her  fallibility.  He  might  believe  it,  or  he  might  not. 
But  once  let  him  leave  the  Church,  and  by  that  act  he  manifested 
to  the  world  his  firm  conviction  that  the  Church  of  England-was  . 
fallible.  Consequently,  the  highest  tribute  an  Anglican  could  pay 
to  his  own  Church  was  to  go  out  of  her,  and  the  best  proof  he 
could  give  of  belief  in  her  teaching  was  to  connect  himself  with- 
out loss  of  time  with  some  other  communion. 

DR.  VIEWY  here  rose,  and  said  that  he  had  listened  with  deep 
interest  to  the  ingenious  observations  of  his  learned  friend.  They 
were,  perhaps,  too  rigidly  scientific,  and  possibly  distasteful  to  some 
of  their  colleagues,  but  he  accepted  them  as  a  valuable  protest 
against  that  narrow  and  Romanistic  theology,  which  Archdeacon 
Chasuble,  and  a  few  others  among  his  reverend  friends,  were  anxious 
to  introduce  into  the  Church  of  England.  For  his  own  part,  he 
hailed  the  accession  of  every  new  view  to  religion  as  evidence  both 
of  the  legitimate  fecundity  of  their  National  Church,  and  of  the 
peculiar  privileges  of  her  members.  It  was  her  glory  to  have 
produced  during  three  successive  centuries  teachers  of  every  shade 
and  variety  of  Christian  doctrine,  and  to  have  survived,  by  a  miracle 
of  vitality,  their  ceaseless  battles  and  disputes,  which  would  have 
destroyed  a  less  vigorous  community,  but  which  she  had  always 
serenely  contemplated  with  maternal  pride.  No  other  religious 
society  which  had  hitherto  appeared  in  the  world  could  make  the 
same  proud  boast.  It  was,  therefore,  with  satisfaction  that  he  was 
about  to  communicate  to  the  House  a  view  of  his  own  perfectly  in. 
harmony  with  the  whole  history  of  the  Anglican  Church,  though 
differing  in  some  points  from  the  one  so  ably  advocated  by  Arch- 


IN   THE    ENGLISH   CHURCH.  13 

deacon  Theory.  It  would  be  found,  however,  to  provide  a  stiil  more 
effective  clue  out  of  the  labyrinth  of  Anglican  difficulties,  a  valuaoie 
guide,  if  he  might  he  allowed  to  say  so,  to  his  younger  brethren, 
and  a  complete  answer  to  the  question  in  debate:  ''Would  it  be 
heresy  in  the  Church  of  England  to  deny  the  existence  of  God  ?" 
(Marks  of  lively  attention.) 

As  an  Anglican  clergyman,  he  had  always  felt  bound  to  teach 
whatever   the  Church  of  England   might  be  supposed   to   teach. 
(Applause.)    But  as  that  Church,  whether  interpreted  by  her  clergy 
or  her  formularies,  was  taunted  by  her  enemies  with  teaching  every- 
thing and  denying  everything  at  the  same  time,  (or  at  least  with  per- 
mitting every  imaginable  creed  from  transcendental  Fopery  down  to 
the  baldest  Calvinism,)  it  became  necessary  for  a  young  clergyman, 
who  would  shelter  himself  from  the  possibility  of  heresy,  to  centre 
the  whole  of  his  obedience   in  that  one   bishop  or  rector,  under 
whom  for  the  time  being  he  might  find  himself  placed.     In  other 
words,  since  to  obey  any  two  ecclesiastical  authorities  at  the  same 
moment  involved  the  risk  of  being  pronounced  a  heretic  by  either 
one  or  the  other— because  no  two  clergymen  are  exactly  of  the 
same  belief— the  only  effective  safeguard  against  the  possibility  of 
heresy  was  personal  obedience  to  one  clergyman  at  a  time.     Let 
the  House  observe  how  admirably  the  principle  he  was  about  to 
develope  conciliated  rival  claims,  while  it  obviated  every  difficulty 
arising  from  variety  of  doctrine.     He  argued,  then,  that  personal 
obedience,  the  prime  duty  of  every  clergyman,  was  also  the  remedy 
for  every  evil;   and    he   believed   that   he   had  carried  out   that 
principle  in  his  own  career,  in  a  manner  which  Convocation  would 
approve. 

When  first  ordained  to  the  office  of  the  Diaconate,  from  which  he 
had  been  subsequently  elevated  to  unmerited  dignities,  he  found 
himself  in  the  diocese  of  a  Low-Church  bishop,— he  might  say  a 
very  Low-Church  bishop,— so  low  that  any  further  descent  into  the 
regions  of  a  purely  negative  theology  would  have  left  no  doctrinal 
residuum  whatever.  He  at  once  decided,  in  virtue  of  his  principle 
of  obedience  to  authority,  to  teach  his  flock  the  religion  of  his 
bishop;  which,  by  careful  analysis,  he  resolved  into  two"  articles- of 
belief— the  denial  of  dogma,  and  the  assertion  of  self.  (Dean  . 
Pompous  audibly  whispered  "highly  unbecoming.")  But  here  he 
had  met  with  a  difficulty  at  starting;    for  it  happened   that  his 


14  THE   COMEDY    OF  COKVOCATTOW 

rector  was  a  Puseyite ;  and  that,  consequently,  in  the  main,  what- 
ever the  bishop  taught  to  be  true,  the  rector  taught  to  be  false,  and 
whatever  the  bishop  taught  to  be  false,  the  rector  taught  to  be  true. 
The  case,  as  Convocation  knew,  was  so  common  in  this  country,  as 
to  form  perhaps  the  rule  in  a  majority  of  parochial  cures.     His 
principle,  however,  suggested  an  easy  escape  from  the  embarrassing 
position.     He  applied  it  thus:  Manifestly  more  obedience- was  due 
to  a  bishop  than  to  a  rector }  yet  a  certain  quantum  of  obedience 
was  due  to  a  rector,  if  only  because  a  bishop  had  appointed  him. 
It  became,  so  to  speak,  a  question  of  proportion,  rather  than  of 
theology,  and  was  soluble,  not  by  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles,  but  by 
the  rule  of  three;  and  after  working  it  out  with  religious  care,  the 
following  commended  itself  to  him  as  the  solution  of  the  problem. 
He  would  preach  Low-Church  doctrines  on  the  Sundays,  denying 
the  sacramental  view  and  all  its  consequences,  as  the  homage  of 
clerical  obedience  due  to  the  bishop;  but  he  would  teach  High- 
Church  doctrines  during  the  week,  without  abating  a  single  tenetr 
in  discharge  of  the  proportionate  measure  of  obedience  due  to  the 
rector.     This  practice  gave  rise,  he  was  bound  to  admit,  to  some 
excitement  in  the  parish,  and  led  to  the  popular  conviction  that 
however  excellent  his  teaching  might  be-  in  detail,  there  was  a  want 
of   unity  about   it  when   looked   at   as   a  whole.      Yet  when   he 
explained  to  his  parishioners  the  purity  of  the  motive  which  induced 
the  apparent  contradictions,  and  proved  to  them  that  his  duplex 
system  was  designed   only  to   reflect  justly  and   proportionately 
the   two   aspects  of  Christianity   exhibited    by  their   bishop   and 
their   rector,  the   whole  parish   at  once   applauded   the   delicacy 
of  his  conscience,  while  it  ceased   not  to  question   the   value  of 
his  teaching.     And  so  things  went  on  with  tolerable  harmony  for 
the  space  of  a  year;  when,  unhappily,  both  the  bishop  and  the 
rector  died  about  the  same  time;  the  former  being  quickly  replaced 
by  a  High-Church  bishop,  appointed  by  a  friend  in  the  Cabinet, 
and  the  latter  by  a  Low-Church  rector,  nominated  by  Mr.  Simeon's 
trustees.     It  now  became  his  duty,  in  consistency  with  his  principle 
of  obedience  to  personal  authority,  to  invert  the  order  and  propor- 
tion of  his  teaching.     He  would  continue  to  give  the  Sundays  to 
the  bishop,  and  the  week-days  to  the  rector;  but  on  Sundays  he 
must  now  be  a  Puseyite,  and  on  week-days  an  Evangelical ;  and 
this  simple  inversion,  so  equitable  in  itself,  and  inspired  solely  by 


IN   THE    ENGLISH   CHURCH.  15 

the  desire  of  submitting  himself  to  his  superiors,  created  such 
discord  in  the  parish,  that  finally  he  was  entreated,  as  the  only 
means  of  restoring  peace,  to  resign  his  cure  of  souls.  At  first  he 
ventured  to  suggest  that  either  the  bishop  or  the  rector  should 
resign  instead  of  himself,  since  their  dissensions,  not  his  disobedience, 
were  the  source  of  all  this  confusion.  But  this  proposal  did  not 
meet  with  that  cordial  acquiescence  which  he  had  a  right  to  expecr. 
from  either  of  the  parties  concerned.  Next,  he  proposed  to  submit 
to  the  arbitration  of  competent  divines,  some  such  problem  as  the 
following: — "Given  the  value  of  certain  Puseyite  doctrines,  with 
their  Evangelical  contraries,  to  find  a  mean  Christianity;"  and  he 
bound  himself  to  accept  the  resultant  as  his  future  standard  of 
orthodoxy.  But  the  arbitrators,  after  sitting  for  several  days, 
(during  which  they  were  principally  occupied  in  unavailing  at- 
tempts to  convert  one  another,)  abandoned  the  task  in  despair; 
alleging  that  there  was  nothing  sufficiently  definite  in  either  value 
to  admit  of  their  finding  a  mean. 

Hard  pressed  in  this  emergency,  but  more  than  ever  solicitous  to 
sustain  the  great  principle  of  his  ecclesiastical  life,  he  had  recourse 
to  a  totally  new  idea.  It  so  happened  that  the  bishop  who  had 
ordained  him  by  Letters  Dismissory  from  his  own  diocesan  was 
neither  High-Church  nor  Low,  but  of  the  Moderate  or  Broad- 
Church  school,  and  chiefly  remarkable  for  the  zeal  with  which  ho 
warned  his  candidates  for  orders  against  "  extremes."  None  of 
these  amiable  young  Levites  could  call  to  mind  that  his  lordship, 
who  was  of  noble  birth,  had  ever  addressed  to  them  any  injunction 
more  apostolic  than  this:  "avoid  extremes."  He  therefore  begged 
that  he  might  be  permitted  to  transfer  his  obedience  to  that  bishop 
from  whom  he  had  originally  received  what  a  modern  writer  had 
playfully  called  the  "divine  commission  not  to.  teach."  This  would 
enable  him,  while  faithful  to  the  obligation  of  clerical  obedience, 
to  take  up  an  independent  position  in  his  own  parish;  and  so  to 
preach  henceforth,  in  a  quiet  and  gentlemanly  way,  against  both 
iiis  bishop  and  his  rector,  thus  avoiding  all  invidious  distinctions. 
Unhappily,  each  fresh  attempt  at  conciliation  was  less  successful 
than  the  last;  and  he  was  just  on  the  point  of  resigning  his  curacy  ' 
in  despair,  when  a  valued  counsellor,  their  distinguished  friend  and 
colleague,  Dr.  Easy,  conveyed  to  him  an  opportune  suggestion. 
That  popular  divine,  who  had  risen  pari  passu  with  himself  to  the 


16  THE    COMEDY    OF    CONVOCATION 

highest  summits  of  their  Zion,  advised  him  to  promise  both  bishop 
and  rector,  as  a  final  effort  to  preserve  obedience  unimpaired,  that 
he  would  in  future  abstain  from  preaching  any  particular  kind  of 
Christianity,  or  from  approaching  any  doctrine  to  which  anybody 
could  object  on  any  ground  whatever — a  method,  Dr.  Easy  assured 
him,  which  was  adopted  by  a  large  number  of  amiable  and  well- 
bred  clergymen  in  the  Church  of  England.  Not  averse  himself 
to  any  arrangement  which  might  meet  with  the  approval  of  author- 
ities, he  embodied  this  idea  in  a  fourth  proposal  to  both  bishop  and 
rector,  who  were  pleased  to  accept  it  with  decent  cordiality,  though 
without  any  show  of  enthusiasm.  And  from  that  day  forward, 
triumphing  in  his  sovereign  principle  of  obedience  to  personal 
authority,  he  flattered  himself,  that  not  the  faintest  trace  of  any 
positive  doctrine  could  be  found  in  any  part  of  his  teaching. 

Now,  applying  this  history  of  an  incident  in  his  own  career  to 
the  general  question  before  the  House :  "  Would  it  be  heresy  in 
the  Church  of  England  to  deny  the  existence  of  God?"  he  thought 
he  had  sufficiently  proved  that  it  need  not  necessarily  be  so.  For 
if  heresy,  as  the  etymology  of  the  word  implies,  consist  in  the 
choice  of  one's  own  creed,  as  opposed  to  the  submission  of  the 
will  to  authority,  it  becomes  evident  that  they  who  always  obey 
can  never  be  guilty  of  heresy.  Assuming  that  any  particular 
bishop  or  rector  should  deny  the  existence  of  God,  and  that  the 
Privy  Council  should  justify  him  in  so  doing;  granting,  further, 
that  obedience  to  his  own  bishop  or  rector  is  the  first  duty  of  a 
curate, — because  in  the  Church  of  England  there  is  not,  as  in  the 
Church  of  Rome,  any  supreme  or  universal  authority  to  obey, — 
it  follows  that  a  curate  can  only  be  guilty  of  heresy  when  he  is 
guilty  of  disobedience.  Otherwise  a  curate  might  set  himself  up 
as  judge  of  heresy  over  his  own  bishop, — a  spectacle  they  not 
unfrequently  witnessed, — thus  making  it  the  bishop's  duty  to  be 
taught  by  the  curate,  instead  of  the  curate's  duty  to  obey  the 
bishop.  The  mind  recoiled  from  so  disastrous  a  preversion. 
Such,  then,  was  his  own  view  of  the  question  before  the  House; 
and  he  should,  therefore,  give  his  vote  in  favor  of  the  opinion, 
that,  in  the  Church  of  England,  it  might  be  conditionally,  but 
could  not  be  necessarily,  heresy  to  deny  the  existence  of  God. 

DEAN  PLIABLE  concurred   in  the  main  with  the  principle 


IN  THE  ENGLISH  OHURCH.  If 

of  the  iearned  divine  who  had  just  resumed  his  seat,  that  obe- 
dience to  authority  was  the  first  duty  of  a  clergyman ;  but  he 
utterly  differed  from  him  in  his  application  of  the  principle, 
which  appeared  to  him  to  be  equally  servile  and  injudicious. 
That  principle  he  conceived  to  be  most  effectually  carried  out, 
not  by  abject  submission  to  this  bishop  or  that,  this  rector  or 
that, — which  might  be  both  possible  and  convenient  if  in  the 
Church  of  England,  as  in  the  Church  of  Eome,  every  bishop  and 
every  rector  taught  the  same  Christianity, — but  in  the  larger  and 
nobler  aim  of  faithfully  representing  at  one  and  the  same  time  all 
the  Christianities  taught  by  all  the  bishops  and  all  the  rectors  of 
the  Church  of  England.  In  other  words,  since  every  one  confessed 
that  it  was  impossible  to  teach  a  uniform  theology  in  the  Church 
of  England,  whose  highest  tribunal  had  ruled  that  her  clergy  might 
teach  either  of  two  opposite  doctrines — and  therefore  both  alter 
nately — he  was  brought  to  the  conviction  that  the  only  course 
open  to  Anglicans  solicitous  about  theoretical  unity  was  to 
profess  at  the  same  moment  every  doctrine  held  within  their 
communion,  and  all  their  contradictories.  (Great  uproar :  a  well- 
known  preacher  was  heard  to  exclaim — "  He  would  convert  us 
into  ecclesiastical  acrobats.")  Dean  Pliable,  however,  continued : 
He  was  not  to  be  diverted  by  unseemly  interruptions,  and  should 
calmly  pursue  the  tenor  of  his  argument.  There  might,  indeed, 
be  clergymen,  timid  lovers  of  compromise,  who  quailed  before 
what  he  was  willing  to  call  the  painful  necessity  of  their  position, 
and  shrank  from  that  large  and  bold,  but  only  practical  view  of 
Anglican  unity  of  which  he  was  the  advocate.  His  own  mind 
was  of  a  less  effeminate  type.  He  would  add,  that,  throughout 
his  long  ministerial  career,  which  had  not  been  wholly  unfruitful, 
— (partial  cheers) — he  had  not  ceased  to  maintain  this  view,  which 
he  would  take  leave  to  call  the  only  honest,  logical,  and  consistent 
view  in  the  present  condition  of  their  great  national  community. 
When  inducted  to  his  first  curacy,  under  circumstances  identical 
with  those  described  by  Dr.  Viewy,  he  resolved  to-  expound  the 
principle  in  question  in  all  its  integrity.  Mounting  the  pulpit  on 
that  interesting  occasion  of  a  first  discourse, — a  moment  which  he 
doubted  not  was  present  to  the  memory  of  most  of  his  colleagues, 
— and  taking  for  his  text  the  sublime  words  of  St.  Paul,  "One 
Lord,  One  Faith,  One  Baptism,"  he  delivered  to-  an  agricultural 


18  THE   COMEDY    OF   CONVOCATION 

but  anxious  and  attentive  congregation,  the  following  sumraa  of 
that  Anglican  theology  which  it  would  be  henceforth  his  duty  to 
unfold  to  them.  He  had  reason  to  know  that  his  sermon  had  been 
warmly  approved  by  many  of  the  more  eminent  clergy  on  both 
sides  of  the  Atlantic,  and  that  at  least  one  Anglican  bishop  was 
accustomed  to  propose  it  to  candidates  for  orders  as  a  model  which 
they  would  do  well  to  imitate. 

"ONE    LOUD,   ONE    FAITH,   ONE    BAPTISM." 

"  These  words,  my  brethren,  on  a  first  impression,  may  seem  to 
you  to  imply  an  undue  restriction  on  the  liberties  of  the  Protestant 
mind.  Listen,  however,  while  I  explain  to  you  the  Anglican 
Theology  as  taught  by  your  bishop,  your  rector,  and  myself;  and 
you  will  confess  that  whatever  St.  Paul  may  have  designed  by 
Christian  unity,  the  Church  of  England  has  put  an  interpretation 
on  his  words  which  relieves  them  of  all  suspicion  of  intolerance. 

I.  In  regard  of  baptism,  which  the  great  Apostle  calls  one  of 
the  "  foundations "  of  Christianity,  you  may  believe  with  your 
rector,  who,  as  you  are  aware,  was  appointed  over  you  by  your 
bishop,  that  without  baptism  it  is  impossible  to  enter  the  kingdom 
of  heaven,  and  that  it  is  always  accompanied  by  the  new  birth. 

(2.)  At  the  same  time,  you  are  evidently  at  liberty  to  consider 
it  with  your  bishop,  to  whom  both  your  rector  and  myself  have 
promised  a  faithful  obedience,  to  be  a  mere  form  or  ceremony, 
having  no  connexion  whatever  with  the  new  birth,  and  therefore 
wholly  unnecessary  to  salvation. 

(3.)  Finally,  you  may  agree  with  me,  your  approved  and  licensed 
curate,  as  regards  Christian  doctrine  in  general  and  baptism  in 
particular,  that  extremes  are  always  to  be  avoided,  and  that  on 
the  whole  it  is  better  to  accept  baptism  as  a  customary  and  not 
disedifying  ceremony,  extremely  well- adapted  to  little  children, 
but  without  entertaining  any  morbid  prejudice  as  to  its  possible 
effects  on  the  soul. 

II.  With  respect  to  the  Lord's  Supper,  you  can  hold  with  your 
rector  that  the  effect  of  consecration  i^  the  element  is  to  produce 


IN  THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH.  19 

some  kind  of  real  presence,  which,  however,  does  not  admit  of  any 
attempt  at  definition,  and  which  is  commonly  expounded  with  the 
greatest  vagueness  by  those  who  profess  to  hold  it  with  the  greatest 
precision.  You  may  also  believe  with  your  rector — if  you  are 
capable  of  the  effort  which  such  an  opinion  implies — that  what 
you  perceive  in  the  chancel  is  not  a  table  but  an  altar,  and  that 
when  you  come  to  church  your  real  object  is  to  assist  at  "  the 
celebration  of  the  adorable  mvsteries." 

J 

(2.)  Should  these  views  commend  themselves  to  your  attention, 
they  will  doubtless  be  rendered  all  the  more  attractive  by  the  fact 
that  they  are  sternly  prohibited  by  your  own  bishop ;  who  requires 
you,  as  you  would  be  saved,  to  maintain  that  in  the  Church  of 
England  there  is  no  such  thing  as  an  altar ;  that  the  above 
doctrine  is  mere  Popery;  that  the  sacrifice  of  the  Mass  is  a 
blasphemous  fable  and  a  dangerous  deceit,  plainly  repugnant, 
as  the  Articles  affirm,  to  the  Word  of  God;  that  consecration 
produces  no  change  whatever  on  the  elements;  that  the  object  of 
covering  the  elements  with  the  hands,  as  the  rubric  commands, 
is  to  prevent  any  change  being  wrought  upon  them;  that  the 
doctrine  of  the  real  presence  is  a  gross  superstition,  to  protest 
against  which  the  Church  of  England  was  expressly  created  in 
the  sixteenth  century:  in  short,  that  the  High-Church  doctrine, 
as  your  bishop  justly  remarks,  is  "rank  Popery,"  while  the  Low- 
Church  doctrine,  as  your  rector  judiciously  observes,  is  "filthy 
Calvinism." 

(3.)  There  yet  remains,  however,  another  view  of  the  subject, 
which  approves  itself  to  many  of  the  clergy,  and  which  may  be 
warmly  recommended  as  being  most  in  harmony  with  the  formu- 
laries and  the  practice  of  our  Church :  that  the  change  in  the 
elements,  if  any,  and  whatever  it  be,  is  solely  due  to  the  recipient 
himself,  who,  of  his  own  free  will  and  power,  consecrates,  or  de- 
clines to  consecrate,  just  as  he  pleases;  the  faith  of  the  communi- 
cant, and  not  the  act  of  the  minister,  determining  the  character 
of  the  elements;  or,  to  put  this  view  more  simply,  say  that  the 
Lord's  Supper  is  a  monthly  or  quarterly  devotion,  in  which  serious 
persons  receive  a  little  bread  and  wine,  neither  with  nor  without 
any  particular  real  presence. 


20  THE   COMEDY   OF   CONVOCATION 

III.  As  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Visible  Church,  what  it  is,  and 
who  belongs  to  it,  you  are  again  provided  with  three  distinct  and 
perfectly  opposite  views  upon  the  point;  while  in  regard  of  this, 
as  every  other  doctrine,  the  Church  of  England  carries  delicate 
forbearance  so  far  as  to  refrain  from  intruding  upon  you  any  assist- 
ance in  making  your  choice  between  them.  Have  you  Catholic 
tendencies  ?  Then  you  may  insist  with  your  rector  that  without 
the  Apostolic  succession  there  can  be  no  true  priesthood ;  and  that 
outside  the  three  branches  of  the  Catholic  Church,  the  Roman,  the 
Greek,  and  the  Anglican,  there  can  be  no  true  sacraments,  no 
valid  ministry,  and  only  a  perilously  vague  and  cloudy  chance  of 
salvation. 

(2.)  But  you  may  also  enjoy  the  privilege  of  believing  with  your 
bishop,  that  in  the  pure  reformed  Christianity  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  a  priesthood,  which  is  a  Popish  figment  to  be  utterly 
reprobated  of  all  faithful  people;  and  that  to  belong  to  the  Church 
means  simply  to  reject  dogma,  abhor  Popery,  and  have  an  inward 
assurance  that  you  are  one  of  the  elect. 

(3.)  But  if  neither  of  these  views  should  happen  to  coincide  ex- 
actly with  your  own  impressions  on  the  subject,  you  may  consider — 
and  this  perhaps  is  a  more  rational  belief  than  either  of  the  other 
two — that  the  Church  is  what  each  person  thinks  it  to  be,  and 
that,  therefore,  everybody  belongs  to  it  who  says  he  does;  whilst 
with  regard  to  ordination,  as  retained  in  our  reformed  com- 
munion, it  is  probably  more  scriptural,  and  certainly  more  gentle- 
manly, than  the  not  being  ordained,  giving  to  our  admirable  clergy 
a  certain  caste  and  position  in  society,  which,  as  everybody  per- 
ceives, is  totally  wanting  to  dissenting  ministers. 

IV.  And  now  I  approach  the  painful  question  of  the  Roman 
Church.  With  your  rector  you  may  tenderly  breathe  forth  the 
prayer,  "  Would  to  God  we  were  one  with  our  sweet  sister  Rome, 
through  whom  we  derive  our  orders,  our  creeds,  and  all  our  Catho- 
licity." You  may  even  assert  with  him,  and  a  good  many  other 
clergymen  of  his  particular  school,  that  they  alone  are  faithful 
members  of  the  English  Church,  who  claim  to  hold  all  Roman 
doctrine,  and  openly  advocate  union  both  with  Rome  and  Moscow, 


IN   THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH.  21 

though,  probably,  with  as  much  expectation  of  obtaining  the  one  as 
the  other. 

(2.)  If,  however,  you  should  find  yourselves  unable  to  take  up  this 
position,  which  must  certainly  be  rather  a  constrained  and  trying 
attitude  for  Protestants,  you  may,  with  your  bishop,  fervently 
exclaim :  "  Away  with  the  Church  of  Rome  from  the  face  of  the 
earth ;  for  she  is  the  Beast  of  the  Apocalypse,  the  great  Babylon, 
several  Antichrists,  the  pit  of  damnable  idolatry,  and  generally 
the  implacable  foe  of  truth,  progress,  liberty,  morality,  virtue, 
decency,  and  enlightenment." 

(3.)  But,  my  brethren,  how  far  more  edifying  will  be  your 
moderation  and  charity,  if,  in  this  particular,  as  in  every  other,  you 
observe  the  golden  rule,  which  is,  "to  approve  every  form  of  belief 
except  a  definite  one; "  remembering  that  it  is  open  to  you,  as  it  is 
to  your  clergy,  to  believe  what  you  like  about  the  Roman  Church, 
as  about  the  Church  of  England ;  and  that  it  is  therefore  scarcely 
prudent  to  censure  the  belief  of  Roman  Catholics,  which  you  may 
one  day  use  your  undoubted  right  to  exchange  for  your  own. 

V.  Next,  as  to  Confession  and  Absolution.  Though  probably 
most  of  you  have  never  heard  of  either,  and  cannot  therefore  be 
expected  to  take  a  deep  interest  in  the  subject,  still  it  is  my  duty 
as  your  spiritual  guide  to  explain  to  you  the  relations  in  which  you 
stand  toward  them.  First,  then,  you  may  hold  with  your  rector 
that  confession  to  God's  priest  is  a  most  blessed  and  tender  pro- 
vision for  afflicted  and  penitent  souls,  a  divinely-appointed  remedy 
for  spiritual  wounds,  which  the  Saviour  of  the  world  bequeathed  to 
sinners  from  His  cross. 

(2.)  If,  however,  you  should  adopt  this  view,  you  will  perhaps  be 
disposed  to  wonder  that  your  Church  allowed  so  wholesome  a 
practice  to  fall  into  abeyance  for  three  hundred  years,  and  you 
may  use  the  liberty  your  Church  permits  you,  to  adopt  the  more 
consistent  opinion  of  your  excellent  bishop :  that  confession  is  a 
disgusting  and  immoral  practice,  a  vile  and  insidious  cheat  of  priest- 
craft, by  which  people  sin  more  easily,  and  priests  get  souls  into 
their  power,  but  which,  happily,  fell  into  merited  disuse  in  our  own 
reformed  land,  because  Englishmen  are  much  too  pure,  great,  and 
good  to  rela'.n  so  detestable  an  usage. 


22  THE    COMEDY    OF    CONVOCATION 

(3.)  But  truer  still,  and  far  more  worthy  of  your  common  sense, 
will  be  the  deep  conviction,  that  Confession  is  not  popular  in  this 
country,  chiefly  on  two  accounts;  first,  because  even  the  highest 
churchmen  have  a  lurking  suspicion  that  their  priests  are  wanting 
in  the  requisite  powers  to  absolve,  having  neither  faculties  to  hear 
confessions,  nor  training  for  so  difficult  and  delicate  an  office;  and, 
secondly,  because  it  may  be  that  Englishmen  detect  a  certain  in- 
congruity in  confessing  their  sins  to  a  reverend  gentleman  who  is 
on  nuptial  terms  with  the  wife  of  his  bosom,  and  has  several 
daughters'  to  marrv." 

He,  Dean  Pliable,  had  advanced  thus  far  in  his  discourse,  pur- 
posing to  complete  in  the  same  manner  the  whole  cycle  of  Anglican 
theology,  when  the  clerk  coming  up  the  pulpit  stairs  put  a  slip  of 
paper  into  his  hand  from  the  rector,  on  which  were  written  the 
two  words,  "  Pray  desist."  In  compliance  with  this  request,  he 
hurriedly  finished  his  discourse;  and,  on  the  following  Monday 
morning,  his  rector,  calling  him  into  his  library,  counselled  him  in 
the  kindest  manner  to  seek  another  curacy.  It  was  in  consequence 
of  this  event,  destined  to  have  results  not  contemplated  by  the 
rector,  that  he  was  shortly  after  named  incumbent  of  a  well-known 
proprietary  chapel  in  the  western  regions  of  the  metropolis,  to 
which  he  was  followed  by  a  deputation  from  his  rector's  flock 
bearing  in  their  hands  a  costly  testimonial,  in  the  form  of  an  ap- 
propriate piece  of  plate. 

And  now,  it  only  remained  for  him  to  explain,  in  conclusion,  why 
he  had  entered  into  these  details,  and  what  was  their  bearing  upon 
the  solemn  question  before  the  House:  "Would  it  be  considered 
heresy  in  the  Church  of  England  to  deny  the  existence  of  God?" 
What  he  had  already  said  would  enable  Convocation  to  anticipate 
his  reply.  The  meditations  of  a  long  life,  directed  especially 
towards  the  character,  the  principles,  and  the  practice  of  the 
English  Church,  obliged  him  to  say  candidly,  that  if  an  Anglican 
bishop,  backed  by  the  Privy  Council,  should  reply  to  the  question 
in  the  negative,  and  instruct  his  clergy  that,  at  least  as  a  matter 
of  discipline,  it  would  not  be  heresy,  such  a  decision  could  only 
be  regarded  as  the  honest  and  logical  completion  of  a  system  of 
theology,  which  having  already  determined  in  manifold  ways  that 
there  is  no  such  thing  as  positive  Chr  stian  truth,  must  consistently 


IN   THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH.  23 

admit  that  there  need  not  be  necessarily  a  personal   Christian 
God. 

A  few  minutes  of  painful  silence  here  ensued,  when — 

DEAN  CRITICAL  inquired,  with  a  touch  of  irony'in  his  voice 
and  manner — "  Could  any  of  his  reverend  friends  undertake  to 
inform  him  what  was  the  authority  of  the  Church  of  England  ?" 
Hitherto  the  debate  had  gone  only  to  show  what  it  was  not.  Dr. 
Theory  had  maintained  that  there  was  no  such  thing.  Dr.  Viewy 
and  Dean  Pliable  had  each  of  them  proved  that  it  did  not  reside  in 
the  bishops  and  clergy,  unless  indeed  it  might  be  supposed  to  exist 
in  equal  measure  in  every  one  of  them ;  but  as  they  were  un- 
happily in  direct  opposition  to  one  another  on  many  fundamental 
doctrines,  this  was  equivalent  to  saying  that  no  authority  to  decide 
Christian  doctrine  existed  in  the  Church  of  England.  If  there 
really  were  any  such  authority,  Convocation  could  hardly  be  more 
usefully  employed  than  in  defining  its  nature  and  fixing  its  limits. 

ARCHDEACON  JOLLY  observed,  without  rising  from  his  seat 
— "  What  say  you  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  ?"  (Some 
laughter,  which  was  immediately  suppressed.) 

DEAN  CRITICAL  reminded  the  venerable  archdeacon  that  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  was  not  alluded  to  in  their  formularies 
in  any  such  character,  and  feared  it  must  be  said,  without  disre- 
spect, that  he  had  no  more  power  to  determine  a  disputed  point  of 
doctrine  than  his  amiable  lady,  whose  hospitality  many  of  them 
had  enjoyed.  It  was  a  lamentable  fact  that  his  Grace  had  no 
more  authority  over  the  people  of  England,  nor  over  a  single  indi- 
vidual out  of  his  own  household,  than  ...  (a  voice  exclaimed, 
"  the  King  of  the  Sandwich  Islands,"  a  suggestion  which  wao 
greeted  with  mingled  applause  and  disapprobation.) 

ARCHDEACON  JOLLY:  Well,  then,  Her  Majesty  the  Queen, 
whom  the  Church  admits  to  be  "supreme"  in  all  causes,  spiritual 
as  well  as  temporal  ? 

DEAN  CRITICAL  could  not  forget  that  Her  Majesty,  in  whom 
they  recognized  a  model  of  every  Christian  virtue,  frequented  in- 
differently Presbyterian  meeting-houses  and  the  churches  of  their 


24  THE   COMEDY   OF   CONVOCATION 

own  communion.  If,  therefore,  as  the  law  appeared  to  admit,  the 
authority  of  the  Anglican  Church  resided  in  her  royal  person,  it 
followed  that  the  Westminster  Confession  and  the  Thirty-Nine 
Articles  were  equally  true,  and  that  every  Anglican  was  also  a 
Presbyterian. 

ARCHDEACON  JOLLY :  "  How  about  the  Privy  Council  ?  If 
it  be  the  ultimate  judge  of  doctrine,  must  it  not  be  the  authority 
for  which  you  are  seeking  ?" 

DEAN  CRITICAL  thought  not,  because  in  fact  the  sum  of  its 
decisions  amounted  to  this — that  the  Church  of  England  taug-ht 
nothing,  and  denied  nothing,  which  was  equivalent  to  saying  that 
she  believed  nothing.  A  trfbunal  which  decided  in  every  case  of 
disputed  doctrine,  as  the  Privy  Council  invariably  did,  that  both  the 
plaintiff  and  defendant  were  right,  was  a  judicial  curiosity  that  could 
hardly  be  said  to  afford  the  litigant  parties  much  assistance  in 
bringing  their  cause  to  an  issue.  The  Privy  Council  might  be  an 
authority  over  the  Church  of  England,  whose  decisions  the  latter 
was  obliged  to  receive ;  but  no  one  could  seriously  maintain  that  it 
was  an  authority  to  which  any  Anglican,  of  whatever  party  in  the 
Church,  professed  to  submit  his  conscience  in  matters  of  faith. 

ARCHDEACON  JOLLY:  "Will  you  accept  Convocation  as 
your  authority  ?"  (Loud  laughter,  with  cries  of  "  Shame  "  from 
Dean  Pompous.) 

DEAN  CRITICAL  regretted  that  he  could  not  accept  Convoca- 
tion in  the  character  of  an  Anglican  Holy  See;  because,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  general  feeling  of  the  country,  and  the  malicious 
comments  of  the  public  press,  which  appeared  to  treat  them  with 
derision,  and  talked  of  their  "  dancing  round  a  May-pole,"  his  own 
observation  of  the  proceedings  of  that  Assembly  dissuaded  him 
from  any  such  view.  Much  experience  had  brought  him  to  the 
sorrowful  conviction  that  Convocation  was  only  a  clerical  debating 
club,  of  which  every  member  took  himself  foi  the  Pope,  and  the 
Church  for  his  pupil. 

ARCHDEACON  JOLLY:  "Might  it  be  permitted  to  suggest 
the  formularies  ?" 

DEAN  CRITICAL :  So  supple  and  elastic  in  their  nature  as  to 


IN   THE    ENGLISH   CHURCH.  25 

be  sworn  to  with  equal  facility  both  by  those  who  claim  to  "hold 
all  Roman  doctrine"  and  those  who  protest  against  it. 

ARCHDEACON  JOLLY:  "Well,  there  are  still  the  Thirty- 
Nine  Articles." 

DEAN  CRITICAL :  Thirty-Nine  opinions,  one  of  which  de- 
clares of  all  the  others,  that  they  are  human  and  fallible. 

ARCHDEACON  JOLLY  did  not  know  that  he  could  offer  any 
further  suggestion,  but,  at  least,  one  of  the  Articles  declared,  "the 
Church  hath  authority  in  matters  of  faith." 

DEAN  CRITICAL  was  not  unmindful  of  the  fact,  which  had 
always  appeared  to  him  to  be  a  device  of  the  framers  to  express 
this  idea:  "We  admit  that  the  Church  we  are  forming  has  no 
authority,  but  we  recognise  that  if  it  were  a  Church,  it  would 
have  authority."  For  it  should  be  observed  that  while  they  said, 
"the  Church  hath  authority,"  they  at  the  same  time  enjoined  the 
clergy  not  to  believe  a  single  word  she  taught  them,  unless  they 
found  their  own  interpretation  of  the  Scriptures  to  agree  with 
hers!  Thus,  they  made  the  Church  of  England  say  to  all  her 
members :  "  If  you  should  accidentally  be  right  in  your  interpre- 
tation of  the  Bible,  put  that  down  to  rue,  for  I  am  the  Church 
which  teaches  you ;  but  if,  which  is  far  more  probable,  you  should 
be  wrong,  put  that  down  to  yourself,  for  I  have  warned  you  to 
believe  in  nothing  which  you  cannot  prove  for  yourself  out  of 
the  Bible."     ("Hear,  hear,"  from  the  Rev.  Lavender  Kidds.) 

DEAN  CRITICAL— (after  contemplating  Mr.  Kidds  through 
his  eye-glass) — continued  :  He  would  gladly  and  thankfully  find  in 
the  Articles,  if  it  were  possible  to  do  so,  both  an  authority  and  a 
summary  of  positive  doctrine.  But  how  stood  the  case  ?  The  very 
Articles  which  affirm  that  the  Church  hath  authority  were  expressly 
written  to  prove  that  it  hath  not.  Even  the  preface  to  the  Articles 
was  a  manifest  attempt  at  throwing  dust  in  the  eyes  of  the  public, 
and  making  them  believe  the  exact  contrary  of  what  the  writers 
knew  to  be  true.  Thus  it  stated  that  the  Articles  were  composed  to 
"avoid  diversities  of  opinion,"  whereas  it  was  notorious  to  the  whole 
world  that  they  were  so  framed  as  to  include  diversities  of  opinion. 
It  said  further,  that  "  His  Majesty  would  not  endure  any  varying 


26  THE    COMEDY    OF    CONVOCATION 

or  departing  from  them,"  which  did  not  seem  to  imply  much  con- 
fidence in  their  power  to  keep  their  own  ground,  and  made  his 
Majesty  the  real  but  somewhat  inefficient  guardian  of  their  contra- 
dictory propositions.  It  said  again  that  "  no  man  should  put  his 
own  sense  or  comment  upon  their  meaning."  Eeally  the  drollest 
requirement!  For,  as  it  had  been  proved  from  the  beginning,  and 
more  than  ever  in  their  own  times,  that  they  were  capable  of  many 
and  opposite  interpretations,  whose  sense  should  a  man  put  upon 
them  unless  he  put  his  own  ? 

THE  PROFESSOR  OF  HISTORY:  Dean  Critical  was  no 
doubt  aware,  that,  according  to  Dr.  Pusey,  the  true  light  by 
which  to  interpret  the  Articles  was  to  be  borrowed  from  the  canons 
of  the  Council  of  Trent. 

DEAN  CRITICAL  did  not  see  why,  if  every  man  might  choose 
his  own  sense,  Dr.  Pusey  might  not  choose  his  own  interpreter, 
though  he  could  have  wished  he  had  made  a  better  choice.  But 
he  was  surprised  that  Dr.  Pusey  did  not  detect  the  inconsistency 
of  making  the  Roman  Church  the  interpreter  of  Articles  which 
were  not  only  directed  against  herself,  but  which  formed  the  very 
charter  of  a  rival  community,  whose  creation  they  expressly 
justified  by  setting  forth  the  errors  and  even  the  blasphemies  of 
Roman  theology.  It  was  really  too  much  to  make  the  Roman 
Church  at  once  the  interpreter  of  charges  brought  against  her, 
and  the  judge  of  the  parties  who  brought  them. 

THE  PROFESSOR  OF  HISTORY  :  It  was  not  the  less  true 
that  they  must  find  a  judge  somewhere,  otherwise  the  Articles 
were  so  much  waste  paper.  Could  they  not  be  made  to  interpret 
themselves  ? 

DEAN  CRITICAL  thought  that  their  friend  Dr.  Theory  had 
sufficiently  demonstrated — first,  that  there  was  really  nothing  to 
interpret;  and,  secondly,  that  even  if  there  were,  there  was  nobody 
authorised  to  interpret  it.  He  had  been  painfully  struck  by  the 
observation  of  his  learned  friend,  that  a  Church  proclaiming  its 
own  fallibility  could  neither  teach  any  definite  doctrine,  nor  enforce 
it  on  the  conscience  of  its  members.  The  Articles  were  his  best 
witness  to  the  truth  of  the  assertion.  Thus,  one  of  them  decreed  that 
the  Church  hath  authority,  whilst  it  not  only  enjoined  all  Anglicans 


IN  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH.  27 

not  to  obey  it,  but  even  instructed  them  how  to  evade  obedience 
by  pleading  their  own  interpretation  of  the  Bible.     Another  of 
them    announced    that    even    General    Councils    were    incurably 
addicted  to  I' erring,"  as  though  the  erring  propensities  of  Councils 
were  to  be  taken  for  proof  that  the  Church  hath  authority,  instead 
of  for  proof   that  it  could  not  possibly  have  any.      Yet  General 
Councils  were  certainly  regarded  by  the  authors  of  the  Prayer-Book 
as  the  highest  authority  after  the  Bible.     How,  then,  was  it  possible 
to  extract  any  plea  for  authority  of  any  kind  from  the  Articles  ? 
"  I  am  sorry  for  you,  General  Councils,  but  you  err,"  is  the  remark- 
able form  of  obedience   to   authority  suggested   by  the  Anglican 
Church  to  her  clergy  !     He  must  repeat,  that  there  was  something 
at  once  trivial  and  impertinent  in  a  Church  declaring  that  it  hath 
authority,  whilst  in  the  same  breath  it  commanded  its  disciples  not 
to  obey  that  authority.     The  authors  of  the  Articles  seem  them- 
selves to  have  felt  the  absurdity;  for  in  the  nineteenth  Article  they 
made  the  Church  of  England  say  virtually,  "  I  cannot  teach  you, 
nevertheless   obey;"  whilst   in    the  twentieth  Article,  they  made 
her  declare,  "  I  can  teach  you,  nevertheless  do  not  obey."  It  repented 
him  (Dean  Critical),  and  it  was  a  relief  both  to  his  conscience  and 
to  his  intellect  to  make  the  avowal,  that  he  had  thrice  sworn  to  the 
Thirty-Nine;  though  perhaps,  as  an  undergraduate,  the  act  was 
partly  excused  by  the  fact  of  his  never  having  read  them,  and,  as  a 
beneficed   clergyman,  by  the  circumstance  that  the  law  was  Loo 
strong   for  him.      He  appealed   to   all   who   respected   truth  and 
integrity,   and    did    not    consider    themselves    mere    ecclesiastical 
machines   to    be   wound    up   and    set    in   motion    by    an    Act   of 
Parliament,  whether  it  was  possible  to  imagine  a  more  grotesque 
form  of  impiety  and  dishonesty  than  the  swearing  to  the  divine 
truth  of  what  one  swears  at  the  same  time  to  be  human  ?     He 
would  remind  the  House  of  the  caustic  and  ingenious  rebuke  of 
the  Count  de  Maistre,  than  which  nothing,  he  conceived,  was  ever 
more  conspicuously  merited  :   "In  the  very  same  moment,  with  the 
very  same  pen,  with  the  same  ink,  and  upon  the  same  paper,  the 
Church  of  England  declares  a  dogma,  and  declares  that  she  has  no 
right  to  declare  it.   I  hope,"  added  the  Count,  "  that  in  the  endless 
catalogue  of  human  inconsistencies,  this  will  always  hold  one  of  the 
first  places."     And  he  (Dean  Critical)  must  venture  to  add  his  own 
hope  to  that  of  the  Count,  that  the  swearing,  no  trotter  how  often, 


28  THE   COMEDY    OF   CONVOCATION 

to  the  divine  truth  of  what  one  swears  to  be  human,  must  be  fai 
too  puerile  an  act  to  be  reckoned  a  sin. 

DR.  EASY  here  rose  to  express  his  regret  that,  up  to  the  present 
time,  no  progress  whatever  had  been  made  towards  that  important 
discovery  which  was  the  object  of  their  present  discussion. 

(He  was  proceeding  to  confess  his  cordial  agreement  with  Dean. 
Critical,  as  a  clergyman  and  a  gentleman,  that  subscription  to 
the  Articles  was  something  very  like  an  insult  to  a  liberal  and 
cultivated  mind,  when  he  was  suddenly  interrupted  by  the  Rev. 
Lavender  Kidds,  who  appeared  not  to  notice  that  anv  one  was 
occupying  the  House.) 

The  Rev.  LAVENDER  KIDDS,  (who  seemed  much  excited,  and 
rose  amidst  cries  of  "  Order,  order,"  and  considerable  laughter), 
observed  that  he  now  assisted  for  the  first  time  at  the  Assembly 
of  Convocation,  and  had  been  deeply  shocked  by  the  unscriptural 
tone  of  the  discussion.  (Suppressed  merriment.)  For  his  part,  he 
gloried  in  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles  of  their  pure  and  reformed 
Church,  and  especially  in  their  noble  testimony  to  the  grand  truth 
that  the  religion  of  Protestants  was  the  "  Bible,  the  whole  Bible, 
and  nothing  but  the  Bible."  This  was  the  true  "  Authority  "  of 
vital  Christians,  and  he  cared  for  no  other.  This  was  the  simple 
and  grand  lesson  of  those  venerable  formularies  which  had  been 
tnat  day  so  grievously  undervalued  and  calumniated.  Really,  it 
seemed  to  him  to  be  preposterous  in  any  Protestant  assembly  to 
talk  so  much  of  "Church-authority."  Authority,  indeed!  Who 
wanted  it  ?  And  if  they  had  it,  who  would  obey  it  ?  Certainly 
no  member  of  that  House  with  whom  he  had  the  happiness  of 
being  acquainted, — (laughter  and  ironical  cheers,) — least  of  all  the 
High-Church  party,  who  had  recently  been  forming  a  society  to 
protect  themselves  against  their  bishops.  (Renewed  disapproba- 
tion.) He  contended  that  their  forefathers  had  done  without 
authority,  and  had  wisely  regarded  it  as  a  mark  of  the  Beast, 
lie  was  for  the  Bible  and  the  Bible  only.  Perish  the  Articles, 
and  the  Church  itself— no,  his  zeal  was  perhaps  carrying  him  too 
far.  What  he  meant  to  say  was — in  fact,  he  wished  to  observe — as 
long  i.s  they  had  the  Word  they  wanted  nothing  else.  He  knew, 
ndeel,  that  Dean  Primitive  and  Archdeacon  Chasuble  preferred 


IN   THE   ENGLISH   CHUKCH.  29 

Authority  to  Scripture — as  long,  that  was,  as  they  joukl  keep  the 
former  entirely  in  their  own  hands;  but  he  had  invariably  re- 
marked that  they  refused  to  their  bishops  and  superiors  the  obe- 
dience they  required  from  their  curates  and  parishioners.  But 
Englishmen,  he  felt  convinced,  were  not  to  be  cajoled  by  a  spu- 
rious Popery;  and  if  they  must  renounce  their  liberty,  it  would 
not  be  to  those  who  used  that  liberty  themselves  to  resist  the  very 
Church  they  copied  in  everything  but  their  obedience.  (General 
cries  of  "Enough,  enough,"  amid  which  Mr.  Kidds  resumed  his 
seat,  with  the  air  of  one  who  had  delivered  a  solemn  and  suitable 
protest.) 

DEAN  BLUNT  regretted  that  Mr.  Kidds  had  so  abruptly  ter- 
minated his  discourse.  He  respected  every  conscientious  opinion,, 
but  feared  that  Mr.  Kidds  had  failed  to  grasp  the  real  point  under 
discussion.  The  reverend  gentleman  need  only  reflect  that  the 
interpretation  of  Scripture  texts  was  even  still  more  various  and 
incongruous  than  that  of  the  Articles,  in  order  to  convince  him- 
self that  if  authority  were  wanted  to  determine  the  one,  it  was  at 
least  as  essential  to  expound  the  other. 

It  was  curious  that  Mr.  Kidds  did  not  perceive  that  everybody 
had  the  Bible  as  well  as  himself,  but  that  everybody  drew  a 
different  Christianity  out  of  it.  From  the  Socinian,  who  denies 
the  divinity  of  the  Lord  who  bought  him,  up  to  the  Puseyite,  who 
believes  in  everything  Catholic  except  in  the  Catholic  Church — all 
were  Bible  Christians.  But  this  was  only  another  way  of  saying 
that  Bible  Christianity  is,  of  all  fallacies,  the  most  transparent;  the 
fallacy  consisting  in  this,  that  no  professedly  Bible  Christian  ever 
really  takes  the  Bible  for  his  authority;  what  he  always  takes  is 
his  own  interpretation  of  the  Bible,  that  is,  himself.  So  that,  "  the 
Bible,  and  the  Bible  only,"  meant  really  "  my  interpretation  of  the 
Bible,  and  not  yours."  Hence,  the  Bible  and  self  were  synonymous 
terms  in  the  mouth  of  the  Bible  Christian.  For  example  (con- 
tinued Dean  Blunt,  with  a  candour  which  appeared  to  startle 
Convocation),  if  Mr.  Kidds  take  a  text  of  the  Bible  as  meaning 
one  thing,  and  I  take  the  same  text  as  meanizig  exactly  the  con- 
trary, it  is  obvious  that  neither  Mr.  Kidds  nor  myself  takes  the 
Bible  for  our  authority :  what  we.  take  is  ourselves :  but  as  nobody 
has  sufficient  sincerity  to  say  openly,  "  my  only  authority  is  myself," 


30  THE  COMEDY  OF   CONVOCATION 

therefore,  Mr.  Kidds  calls  his  opinions  "  the  Bible,"  and  I  call  Mr. 
Kidds'  opinions  "un scriptural." 

He  (Dean  Blunt)  would  only  detain  the  House  to  suggest  to 
Mr.  Kidds  the  answer  he  must  give  to  the  question  proposed  by 
Dr.  Easy.  Assuming  Mr.  Kidds'  theory — that  a  man's  conviction 
of  the  truth  is  the  same  with  truth  itself;  in  other  words,  that 
heresy  becomes  the  truth  to  every  one  who  thinks  he  finds  it  in  the 
Bible — the  real  solution  of  Dr.  Easy's  question  was  as  follows  : 
"Let  a  man  be  sure  that  the  Bible  teaches  that  there  is  a  God, 
and  then  he  is  a  heretic  if  he  deny  it;  but  let  him  have  the  smallest 
doubt  upon  the  point,  and  then  he  is  a  heretic  if  he  assert  it." 

DEAN  PRIMITIVE  was  unwilling  that  the  observations  of 
Mr.  Kidds  should  pass  without  any  other  reply  than  Dean  Blunt 
had  thought  fit  to  give  them.  He  had  spent  thirty  years  of  his 
life  in  combating  the  errors  of  that  party  in  the  Church  to  which 
Mr.  Kidds  belonged,  and  he  hoped  to  continue  the  same  holy  war- 
fare to  the  end.  He  was  aware  that  the  so-called  Evangelicals 
insisted  upon  the  plainness  of  Scripture,  and  were  accustomed  to 
assume,  with  strange  disregard  of  notorious  facts,  that  nobody 
need  find  any  difficulty  in  deciding  the  true  meaning  of  any  text 
whatever.  With  the  permission  of  the  House,  he  would  give  a 
few  illustrations  of  the  Evangelical  method  of  dealing  with  the 
inspired  book;  from  which  it  would  very  clearly  appear,  that 
when  they  boasted  of  appealing  to  the  Bible,  they  only  appealed 
to  their  own  version  of  it,  that  is,  to  themselves ;  and  that  their 
favourite  shibboleth,  "  the  Bible,  and  the  Bible  only,"  meant  simply, 
as  Dean  Blunt  had  well  observed,  "  my  interpretation  of  the  Bible, 
and  not  yours." 

■ 

Thus,  when  our  Lord  said  to  His  priests:  "I  give  to  you  the 
keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,"  it  is  plain,  according  to  the  Evan- 
gelicals, that  He  meant:  "I  give  to  no  man  the  keys  of  the  king- 
dom of  heaven." 

When  He  declared :  "  Whosesoever  sins  you  remit,  they  are 
remitted ;"  beyond  doubt  He  wished  them  to  understand :  "  I  par- 
ticularly withhold  from  you  the  power  to  remit  sin." 

When  He  gave  the  promise  to  his  Church :  "I  am  with  you 
always,  even  to  the  end  of  the  world;"  manifestly  He  designed  to 


IN   THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH.  31 

say :  "I  am  with  you  only  to  the  end  of  the  third  or  fourth  century, 
after  which  I  shall  desert  you  until  the  sixteenth." 

When  H3  announced:  "I  will  send  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  He 
shall  guide  you  into  all  truth;"  it  is  clearer  than  the  day  that  He 
wished  to  tell  them:  "The  Holy  Ghost  will  teach  you  just  so 
much  of  truth  as  each  individual  can  gather  for  himself  from  the 
private  study  of  the  Scriptures." 

When  He  made  the  wonderful  statement:  "The  gates  of  hell 
shall  never  prevail  against  the  Church;"  even  children  can  see  that 
He  meant:  "Hell  shall  triumph  over  the  Church  for  eight  hundred 
years  and  more." 

Finally,  when  he  exclaimed:  "He  that  will  not  hear  the  Church 
let  him  be  to  thee  as  the  heathen  and  the  publican;"  how  obvious 
the  interpretation:  "  He  that  will  not  hear  the  Church,  let  him  be 
to  thee  as  a  brother;  provided  only  he  read  the  Bible,  and  call 
himself  an  Evangelical." 

As  the  Evangelicals  dealt  ki  this  manner  with  the  words  of  the 
Master,  it  was  not  surprising  that  they  should  treat  His  apostles 
with  the  same  derision.     A  few  examples  would  suffice : — 

If  St.  Paul  said:  "A  man  that  is  a  heretic  reject;"  everybody 
perceives  that  he  meant :  "  Particularly  court  the  company  of 
heretics,  and  gladly  join  in  prayer  with  them." 

If  he  exhorted:  "Let  there  be  no  divisions,"  what  is  moro 
evident  than  this  truth :  "  Without  divisions  the  human  mind  will 
be  enslaved  by  priestcraft." 

If  he  taught  that  there  should  be  "  no  schisms  in  the  body," 
Burely  it  was  equivalent  to  saying :  "  Let  the  body  be  made  up  of 
fichisms." 

If  he  affirmed:  "The  works  of  the  flesh  are  manifest,  which 
are  sects,"  it  was  precisely  as  if  he  had  said:  "Now,  sects  are  the 
first-fruits  of  the  Spirit." 

If,  alluding  to  holy  marriage,  he  observed:  "It  is  good  for  a  man 
not  to  touch  a  woman,"  how  manifest  the  meaning :  "  Everybody 
should  many,  and  particularly  priests." 

If,  again,  he  said:  "He  that  is  married  ie  divided,"  how  trans- 
parent the  scriptural  lesson:  "All  men  ought  to  marry,  in  order 
that  they  may  be  divided." 

If,  once    more,   he    admonished    Christians:.  "He   that   is   no\ 


32  THE    COMEDY    OF    CONVOCATION" 

married  careth  for  the  Lord,"  how  patent  the  Apostolic  counsel: 
"  Make  haste  to  marry,  especially  the  bishops  and  clergy,  that  you 
may  cease  to  care  for  the  Lord." 

He  would  now  proceed  to  give  illustrations  of  a  different  hind, 
and  from  a  different  source.  He  was  anxious  to  show,  as  a  mere 
matter  of  fairness  to  Mr.  Kidds,  that  his  method  and  that  of  his 
party  in  the  Church  was  not  inconsistent  with  the  language  of  the 
Articles,  which  would  supply  remarkable  specimens  of  the  same 
kind.  For  this  reason  he  felt  at  liberty  to  remain  in  communion 
with  men  whose  views  of  Christianity  were  diametrically  opposed 
to  his  own.  Both  could  plead  the  approval,  silent  or  spoken,  of 
their  common  mother.  The  maxim,  "Quieta non mover e" — which  in 
their  communion  might  be  interpreted,  "  Peace  at  any  price" — was 
not  to  be  lightly  esteemed ;  and,  perhaps,  in  the  event  of  any 
future  revision  of  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles,  the  sense  of  that  salutary 
maxim  might  be  embodied  in  theological  terms,  so  as  to  constitute 
the  fortieth  of  their  number. 

The  examples  he  proposed  to  add  were  as  follows  ;  each  was 
unique  of  its  kind : — There  was  the  example  dogmatic ;  the  ex- 
ample critical;  and  the  example  evasive.  And,  first,  for  the 
example  dogmatic. 

The  Twenty-eighth  Article  pronounced  that  the  Catholic  doctrine 
of  the  Sacrament  of  the  Altar  is  "repugnant  to  the  plain  words  of 
Scripture."  Now  the  plain  words  were :  "  This  is  my  body."  Con- 
sequently, when  our  Lord  said :  "  This  is  my  body,"  the  plain 
meaning  of  His  words  was:  "This  is  not  my  body."  By  parity  of 
reasoning,  had  our  Lord  said :  "  This  is  not  my  body,"  the  plain 
meaning  of  his  words  would  have  been — Transubstantiation  !  On 
the  same  principle,  when  there  came  a  voice  from  Heaven:  "This 
is  my  beloved  Son,"  it  is  repugnant  to  the  plain  words  of  Scripture 
to  suppose  that  the  Eternal  Father  revealed  the  Hypostatic  Union. 
But  had  the  Eternal  Father  affirmed :  "  This  is  not  my  beloved 
Son,"  the  plain  meaning  would  have  been,  what,  in  sho;-t,  every 
good  Christian  erroneously  believes  to  be  true.  He  (Dean  Primitive) 
had  always  regarded  this  statement  of  the  Articles  as  an  intentional 
and  ingenious  irony,  of  which  the  Bible  theory  was  the  object;  and 
it  was  with  this  reservation  that  he  swore  to  it  at  his  ordination. 
For  if  the  statement  were  seriously  made,  it  would  be  perhaps  the 


IN    THE    ENGLISH    CHURCH.  33 

most  eccentric  defiance  of  common  sense,  and  common  honesty, 
with  which  the  literature  of  the  world  had  hitherto  furnished 
them. 

Next  for  the  example  critical. 

He  (Dean  Primitive)  had  found  himself  some  years  since  attend- 
ing a  parish  meeting  in  the  north  of  England,  presided  over  by  a 
clergyman  of  great  repute.  The  question  under  discussion  was 
the  best  mode  of  treating  controversial  subjects  in  their  divided 
Church.  One  clergyman  strongly  objected  to-  all  controversy,  on 
the  ground  that  it  quenched  charity,  and  led  to  no  practical  result. 
Immediately  arose  another,  who  declared  in  a  loud  voice,  and  with 
great  energy  of  manner,  that  he  had  the  authority  of  "Paul  him- 
self" for  the  condemnation  of  so  wretched  and  unscriptural  an 
opinion.  For  did  not  Paul  say,  that  "  without  controversy,  great 
is  the  mystery  of  godliness,"  and  could  he  more  clearly  imply  that 
with  controversy  all  the  mystery  vanishes  ?  (Great  laughter, 
during  which  Mr.  Kidds  rose,  as  if  to  leave  the  room,  but  appeared 
to  change  his  mind.) 

Thirdly,  there  was  the  example  evasive. 

At  an  Archidiaconal  meeting  in  a  small  town  in  Wiltshire,  the 
discussion  at  dinner  turned  upon  fasting.  It  was  a  Friday,  and 
lie  must  confess  that  the  dinner  provided  by  the  landlord  of  the 
inn,  who  was  probably  not  a  theologian,  was  both  ample  and  succu- 
lent, including  a  haunch  of  venison,  to  which  all  had  done  justice. 
Several  of  the  younger  clergy  maintained,  whether  from  a  tardy 
sentiment  of  remorse  he  could  not  say,  the  scriptural  duty  of  fast- 
ing. This  was  indignantly  denied  by  an  incumbent  cf  the  school 
of  Mr.  Kidds.  Hard  pressed  by  various  texts,  and  especially  by 
the  express  words  of  St.  Paul,  from  which  there  was  no  escape,  he 
exclaimed,  after  a  few  moments  of  painful  deliberation  :  "  Paul  was 
a  young  man  when  he  enjoined  fasting,  and  probably  became  more 
scriptural  afterwards." 

Before  resuming  his  seat,  he  would  beg  to  oiler  his  humble  con- 
tribution toward  the  solution  of  the  question  proposed  by  Dr.  Easy. 
It  would  certainly  be  sin- and  madness  to  deny  the  existence  of 
God,  but  it  would,  he  thought,  be  wrong  to  consider  it  heresy — at 
least  in  an  Evangelical.     He  very  much  feared  that,  in  that  nar- 


34  THE  COMEDY   OF   CONVOCATION 

ticular  s  action  of  their  Church  heresy  was  impcesible :  because 
heresy  was  only  the  "choice"  of  one's  own  religion,  and  the  Low- 
Church  theory  required  every  Protestant  to  make  that  choice  de- 
liberately for  himself.  Given  the  right  which  modern  "liberty" 
conferred  on  every  Protestant  of  gathering  his  own  religion  from 
the  Bible,  it  would  be  unreasonable  to  call  any  man  a  sinner,  and 
absurd  to  call  him  a  heretic.  A  Christian,  on  the  Low-Church 
theory,  could  only  be  a  heretic  when  he  differed  from  himself,  and 
persisted  in  wilful  disobedience  to  his  own  opinions.  Heresy, 
therefore,  as  far  as  they  were  concerned,  was  a  word  that  had  lost 
all  sense  and  meaning.  A  man  might  be  a  criminal  in  denying 
the  existence  of  God,  but  he  could  not  by  any  possibility  be  a 
heretic.  The  Low-Church  party  had  conferred  this  boon  on 
Christian  England,  that  it  had  rendered  heresy,  which  used  to  be 
the  greatest  of  crimes,  an  absolute  impossibility  for  anybody  to 
commit. 

But  if  he  must  speak  for  himself  on  the  question  proposed  by 
Dr.  Easy,  he  had  only  to  reply  that  the  Fathers  and  the  first  four 
General  Councils  believed  there  was  a  God,  and  that  they  were  the 
safest  guides  on  every  point  of  Catholic  belief. 

DP.  CANDOUR  demanded :  How  should  the  jioor  know  any- 
thing about  the  Fathers  or  the  General  Councils? 

DEAN  PRIMITIVE :  Their  clergy  would  instruct  them. 

DR  CANDOUR :  But  if  their  clergy  differed  ? 

DEAN  PRIMITIVE:  The  Councils  did  not  differ,  nor  the 
Fathers. 

DR.  CANDOUR :  That  might  be  true :  but  certainly  the  clergy 
differed  quite  as  much  about  the  Councils  and  the  Fathers  as  they 
did  about  the  Bible.  So  that,  after  all,  it  came  to  this,  that  the 
Puseyites'  private  reading  of  the  records  of  the  early  Church  was 
the  same  in  principle  with  Mr.  Kidds'  private  reading  of  the  Bible ; 
with  this  advantage  to  the  latter,  that  every  one  can  read  the  Bible 
who  can  read  at  all,  but  not  one  person  in  a  million  can  read  the 
Councils  or  the  Fathers.  Now  "  salvation  by  scholarship  alone  " 
was  a  theory  that  ha  I  its  disadvantages  on  the  score  of  its  exclusive- 


IN  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH.  35 

ness.  Besides,  it  was  a  fact  that  many  Anglicans,  like  Dr.  Ives,  an 
American  Bishop,  were  converted  to  the  Koman  Church,  chiefly  by 
the  study  of  the  Fathers  and  the  Councils.  These  converts  argued 
that  the  ancient  writers  required  a  living  interpreter  equally  with 
Holy  writ;  whereas  the  Puseyites  affirmed  that  every  man  was 
born  a  Sovereign  Pontiff  to  sit  in  judgment  on  the  early  Church! 
Deans  Blunt  and  Primitive  had  been  severe  on  Mr.  Kidds,  he 
thought  unjustly,  on  the  ground  that  Bible  Christianity  was  a 
cloak  for  private  fancies  and  conceits ;  but  he  would  like  to  be 
informed — since  the  Roman  Church,  the  Creek  Church,  and  every 
other  church,  claimed  to  be  the  true  and  sole  successors  of  the  early 
Church — where  was  the  difference  between  the  private  reading  of 
the  Bible  and  the  private  reading  of  antiquity  ? 

(Dean  Primitive  declining  to  continue  the  discussion,  Convo- 
cation broke  up  into  various  groups,  and  the  sitting  was  temporarily 
suspended.  Several  reverend  gentlemen  produced  sandwiches, 
or  other  temperate  food,  the  consumption  of  which  tended  to 
allay  excitement  by  impeding  conversation.  Dean  Pompous 
alone  left  the  Hall,  as  if  disdaining  equally  the  food  and  the  dis- 
course ;  but  as  he  was  observed,  on  returning  a  few  minutes  later, 
to  replace  a  gold  tooth-pick  in  his  waistcoat  pocket,  it  was  inferred 
that  he  had  chosen  to  take  his  refreshment  apart.  When  order 
and  silence  had  at  length  been  restored,  the  debate  was  resumed, 
without  any  signs  of  diminished  interest.) 

THE  PROFESSOR  OF  THEOLOGY,  responding  to  a  general 
5\11  of  the  House,  now  manifested  his  intention  to  address  the 
?.ssembly. 

It  was  no  doubt  true,  he  observed,  that  the  appreciation  of  the 
Evangelical  party,  with  which  Dean  Primitive  had  favoured  them, 
was  substantially  exact.  Their  somewhat  exaggerated  Protestantism 
had  been  playfully  rebuked ;  and  he  was  free  to  admit  that  it  was 
the  product  of  ideas  and  sentiments  which  did  not  find  their  source 
in  common  sense  nor  in  rational  religion.  But  he  was  no  less  con- 
vinced, and  he  thought  the  moment  had  arrived  to  make  this  obser- 
vation, if  only  as  a  matter  of  justice  to  the  High-Church  party,  and  to 
protect  them  from  a  purely  invidious  calumny,  that,  in  point  of 
essential  unmitigated  Protestantism,  the  Puseyites  surpassed  their 


36  THE   COMEDY   OF   CONVOCATION 

Low-Church,  rivals  as  much  as  they  did  in  ability  and  learning.  It 
had  been  observed  by  Dean  Blunt  that  "self"  was  the  alpha  and 
orrucga  of  the  Low-Church  party.  But  if  self  was  the  Bible  at 
Exeter  Hall,  it  was  also  the  supreme  Pontiff  at  Oxford.  "  The  Biblo 
interpreted  by  the  Church,"  meant  "both  interpreted  by  myself;" 
and  "  the  Fathers  interpreted  by  the  Church,"  meant  "my  opinion 
of  the  Fathers  interpreted  by  my  opinion  of  the  Church."  Add  to 
these  the  ultra-Protestant  formula,  "  the  Bible,  and  the  Bible  only," 
— which  meant  simply  "  my  own  interpretation  of  that  .book,  not 
yours;" — and  it  was  plain  to  common  sense  that  all  three  formulas 
were  absolutely  one  in  principle.  The  only  real  difference  between 
them  would  be  found  in  their  accidental  developments.  One  illustra^- 
tion  of  this  fact  was  as  good  as  a  thousand.  Some  years  ago,  as  his 
reverend  colleagues  might  remember,  the  late  Rev.  John  Keble 
preached  a  remarkable  sermon,  of  which  the  Rev.  A.  T.  Russell, 
though  a  clergyman  of  the  same  communion,  publicly  declared  that 
it  was  "inconsistent  with  the  profession  of  Christianity" — meaning, 
of  course,  Mr.  Russell's  Christianity.  In  this  case  the  private  inter- 
pretation of  the  Bible  was  arrayed  against  the  private  interpreta- 
tion of  the  Fathers;  and  the  result  of  the  conflict  was  that  each 
advocate  indulged  in  a  perfectly  harmless  damnation  of  the  other, 
both  remaining  authorised  ministers  of  the  same  wisely  liberal  and 
tolerant  Church. 

The  truth  was,  that  Puseyism — to  use  once  more  a  convenient 
term  which  usage  had  consecrated — was  simply  ultra-Protestantism, 
plus  twice  its  pretensions,  and  minus  half  its  cant.  Self,  he 
repeated,  was  the  sole  pontiff  on  both  sides,  but  self  assumed  far 
more  gigantic  dimensions  in  the  High  than  in  the  Low-Church 
school.  To  sit  in  judgment  on  the  Fathers  and  the  Councils  as  well 
as  on  the  Bible ;  to  instruct  the  doctors  where  they  were  right,  and 
admonish  the  saints  where  they  were  wrong;  to  tell  the  Church 
what  it  was  her  duty  to  teach,  and  obey  her  only  so  long  as  she 
consented  to  obey  themselves ; — this  was  evidently  a  more  courage- 
ous self-worship  than  to  be  content  with  the  humbler  privilege  of 
manipulating  texts.  For  this  reason,  he  had  always  said,  and  would 
now  repeat,  that,  in  point  of  essential  and  uncompromising  Protest- 
antism, High-Churchmen  had  no  rivals,  whether  in  the  Church  of 
England  or  in  any  other  community.  They  alone,  who  were  some- 
times charged  with  unfaithfulness  to  the  Reformation,  used  all  the 


IN  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH.  37 

licence  which  it  gave.  To  assert  the  principle  of  authority,  whilst 
daily  repudiating  it  in  practice;  to  claim  to  be  "Catholic,"  while 
cheerfully  remaining  out  of  communion  with  any  church,  school, 
or  party  in  the  whole  Christian  world ;  this  was  the  special  glory  of 
gentlemen  who  had  always  far  surpassed  the  modest  and  timid  war- 
fare of  their  neighbours,  and  contrived  to  enjoy  the  luxury  of  pro- 
testing at  the  same  moment  against  the  Roman  Church,  their  own 
church,  and  every  other  church.  It  was  true,  indeed,  that  in  order 
not  to  be  quite  alone  in  the  world,  they  affected  to  transfer  their 
homage  to  a  purely  imaginary  primitive  Church,  which  existed  only 
in  their  own  brain,  and  their  pretended  obedience  to  which  relieved 
them  from  the  irksome  duty  of  yielding  the  slightest  obedience  to 
any  other.  This  submission  to  a  Church,  which  had  ceased  to  exist 
for  many  centuries,  if  it  had  ever  existed  at  all,  was,  in  his  opinion, 
the  most  ingenious  of  all  Protestant  contrivances  for  submitting  to 
nothing  and  nobody. 

(Dean  Primitive  and  Archdeacon  Chasuble  here  rose  together  in 
much  excitement,  but  the  latter  being  called  upon  by  the  House, 
said) :  He  apologised  for  interrupting  the  learned  Professor,  but  his 
feelings  overpowered  him,  and  he  could  not  remain  silent.  He  had 
always  regarded  Anglicanism,  for  he  declined  to  repeat  the  oppro- 
brious nickname  employed  by  the  Professor,  as  the  only  combi- 
nation hitherto  attempted  of  authority  with  private  judgment. 

THE  PROFESSOR :  That  might  have  been,  and  probably  was, 
the  original  programme  of  the  party,  but  private  judgment  had 
soon  strangled  authority,  as  might  have  been  safely  predicted,  and 
no  sect  of  Christians  of  that  or  any  other  age  were  so  contemptuous 
of  all  authority,  whether  enthroned  at  Lambeth  or  in  the  Vatican, 
as  those  who  were  commonly  called  Puseyites.  A  Papist  said,  and 
was  at  least  consistent  with  his  profession ;  "  My  church  is  my 
teacher;  therefore  I  obey  her."  A  Puseyite  said,  not  in  word,  but 
in  act ;  "  My  church  is  my  pupil,  therefore  I  instruct  her."  The 
difference  was  admirably  stated  by  a  Frenchman,  when  he  ingeni- 
ously observed:  "The  Puseyile  says,  'L'Eglise,  c'est  moi;'  the 
Catholic  says,  '  L'  Eglise,  c'est  nous.'  " 

There  was  not,  he  conceived,  in  the  annals  of  human  religions — of 
which  the  number  was  now  almost  beyond  arithmetical  calculation 


38  THE   COMEDY   0*    CONVOCATION 

— so  singular  a  paradox  as  that  which  was  displayed  in  Puseyifce 
theology.    The  claims  of  a  Leo  the  Great,  or  a  Gregory  the  Seventh, 
>vhich  at  least,  whatever  Protestants  might  think  of  them,  were 
cordially  admitted  both  in  their  own  generation  and  in  those  which 
followed  it,  were  only  the  utterances  of  timid  self-abasement,  com- 
pared with  the  super-oecumenical  dogmatism  of  their  High-Church 
friends.     "  Obey  me,"  said  these  gentlemen  to  their  disciples,  "for 
obedience  is  the  prerogative  of  the  laity;  but  I  obey  nobody  except 
my  own  interpretation  of*the  Fathers,  or  of  such  of  them  as  I 
approve,  because  my  church   is   not   yet  sufficiently  Catholic  to 
deserve  my  obedience.    At  present  I  am  obliged  to  create  a  church 
for  you,  because  nothing  worthy  of  the  name  is  found  just  now  on 
earth.     The  day  will  come  when  she  will  have  been  sufficiently 
taught  by  me,  will  coase  to  be  Protestant  without  becoming  Roman, 
and  then  I  shall   be  able  to  obey  the  Church,  because,  having 
learned  from  me  the  exact  form  of  primitive  Christianity,  which 
exists  nowhere  at  present  but  in  my  own  ideal   conception,  the 
Church  will  have  come  again  into  corporate  existence,  and  will  be 
worthy  of  your  dutiful  regard.    It  will  then  no  longer  be  necessary 
for  mo,  as  it  is  unfortunately  at  present,  to  cumulate  in  my  own 
person  the  functions  of  the  Pope,  the   Saints,  the    Fathers,  the 
General  Councils,  and  Almighty  God." 

(Considerable  agitation  followed  this  speech,  during  which  the 
sitting  was  suspended  for  some  minutes.) 

The  Rev.  LAVENDER  KIDDS  observed,  as  scon  as  the  com- 
posure of  the  Assembly  was  restored,  that,  however  forcible  the 
remarks  of  the  learned  Professor  might  be  as  applied  to  Puseyism, 
he  had  shown  that  he  was  unwilling  to  grapple  with  the  grand 
principle  of  Bible  Christianity,  of  which  he  was  the  humble 
advocate. 

THE  PROFESSOR  intended  no.  disrespect  to  Mr.  Kidds  and 
his  party.  Bible  Christianity,  since  he  must  speak  of  it,  (though 
he  thought  that  former  speakers  had  sufficiently  disposed  of  tho 
subject,)  was  only  less  preposterous  than  the  rival  theory  which 
ho  had  just  ventured  to  describe.  It  required  personal  infallibility 
in  all  who  professed  it.     It  simply  transferred  to  the  individual 


IN   THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH.  39 

the  supernatural  prerogative  which  the  Romanist  attributed  to  his 
Church.  It  was  obvious  to  common  sense  that  if  Mr.  Kidds  could 
interpret  a  particular  translation  of  the  Scriptures,  so  as  to  know 
infallibly  both  how  much  was  necessary  to  salvation,  and  exactly 
what  was  necessary  to  be  believed  about  it,  he  must  himself  be 
personally  infallible. 

MR.  KIDDS  would  confidently  insist  that  the  cases  were  not- 
identical,  because  the  interpretation  of  the  Bible  did  not  require 
the  monstrous  faculty  assumed  by  that  apostate  Church,  the  Holy 
Book  being  plain  on  all  points  which  were  "necessary  to  salva- 
tion." 

THE  PROFESSOR,  being  anxious  to  satisfy  Mr.  Kidds,  would 
reply  that  the  plainness  of  the  Bible  was  not  a  point  to  be  dis- 
cussed until  it  could  first  be  proved  that  the  Bible  was  their  sole 
authority  in  matters  of  faith.  But  was  this  assumption  consistent 
with  historical  facts?  Before  the  invention  of  printing  in  the 
fifteenth  century,  not  one  man  in  a  million  could  possess  a  copy 
of  the  Scriptures.  He  might  add  that  not  one  man  in  ten  thou- 
sand could  have  read  the  Bible,  even  if  he  had  possessed  it.  Print- 
ing, therefore,  on  Mr.  Kidds'  theory,  was  that  Second  Dispensation, 
which  was  intended  by  Almighty  God  to  supplant  the  authority  of 
a  Living  Church.  And,  moreover,  whatever  Mr.  Kidds'  private 
views  on  printing,  at  least  he  must  confess  that,  but  for  the  as- 
siduous care  with  which,  through  more  than  a  thousand  years,  the 
Roman  Church  preserved  and  multiplied  the  manuscripts  of  Holy 
Writ,  neither  he  nor  any  other  Protestant  could  have  known  that 
there  had  ever  been  a  Bible  at  all. 

MR.  KIDDS  exclaimed  with  energy:  The  Ptoman  Church  for- 
bids the  Bible  to  the  people ! 

THE  PROFESSOR :  The  Roman  Church  does  just  the  con- 
trary. She  compels  the  people  to  hear  the  Gospels  and  Epistles 
read  from  the  pulpit  every  Sunday  morning ;  reading,  moreover, 
the  same  Epistles  and  Gospels — selected  with  a  wisdom  which 
seemed  more  than  human,  and  revealed  a  truly  marvellous  com- 
prehension of  their  divine  meaning — which  the  Church  of  England 
had  appropriated  from  her  Missal.     What  the  Church  of  Roma 


40  THE   COMEDY    OF   CONVOCATION 

iloes  not  permit  is,  that  every  one  should  interpret  for  himself  the 
most  difficult  book  that  ever  was  written ;  that  every  ignorant 
fanatic  or  conceited  curate  should  mount  a  pulpit  and  expound  a 
private  gospel  of  his  own ;  and  if  the  Roman  Church  required 
justification  in  that  prudent  course,  she  had  only  to  point  to  the 
chaos  of  ideas  engendered  by  English  Protestantism  to  prove  that 
of  all  the  wild  delusions  that  had  ever  possessed  the  human  mind, 
the  Printing  theory  was  the  most  absurd. 

MR.  KIDDS  was  not  to  be  shaken  from  his  first  position :  that 
upon  all  the  points  which  are  necessary  to  salvation  the  Bible  ia 
plain. 

THE  PROFESSOR,  turning  to  Mr.  Kidds  with  a  smile,  replied: 
Every  doctrine  was  plain  to  those  who  chose  to  believe  it,  and 
clothed  in  densest  obscurity  to  those  who  did  not.  Baptism,  the 
Apostolic  Succession,  Sacramental  Confession,  the  Real  Presence, 
were  plainly  necessary  to  salvation  to  all  who  liked  them,  and  as 
plainly  unnecessary  to  all  who  disliked  them.  The  Bible  plain  ! 
Why,  the  awful  doctrines  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  the  Divinity  of 
Christ,  and  the  Atonement,  had  all  been  vehemently  denied  on 
the  authority  of  the  Bible  !  Was  Mr.  Kidds  ignorant  that  Roman 
Catholics  confidently  quoted  the  Bible,  from  Genesis  to  Revelations, 
against  Protestant  doctrines  ?  Bid  he  know  that  Cardinal  Bellar- 
mine  quoted  more  than  fifty  texts  in  proof  of  Purgatory,  and  that 
others  quoted  more  than  a  hundred  in  defence  of  their  confidence 
in  the  Blessed  Virgin  ?  (Mr.  Kidds  groaned  aloud.)  Was  anything 
more  plain  to  the  Papist  than  the  declaration  to  Peter:  "Upon 
this  rock  I  will  build  my  church  ?"  Was  anything  less  ambiguous 
to  him  than  the  words:  "This  is  my  body?"  Anything  more 
decisive  than  the  announcement:  "It  is  a  wholesome  and  holy 
thought  to  pray  for  the  dead  ?  "  [Archdeacon  Jolly  here  ob- 
served to  a  neighbour,  that  the  Church  of  England,  as  a  quiet  way 
of  getting  rid  of  this  "  unscriptural "  text,  ordered  it  to  be  left  out, 
when  it  occurred  in  the  Lesson  for  the  day !]  All  Scripture  doc- 
trines, he  repeated,  were  plain  to  those  who  liked  them,  and  forced 
or  perverted  to  those  who  did  not.  What  was  "  pure  gospel "  to 
Mr.  Brown  was  "  deadly  error  "  to  Mr.  Green,  and  the  "  fundamental 
verities  "  of  Mr.  Thompson  were  the  "  aatanical  delusions  "  of  Mr. 


IN   THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH.  41 

Johnson.  One  half  the  clergy  of  the  Church  of  England  believed 
that  the  religion  of  the  other  half  was  odious  in  the  sight  of 
God,  and  yet  they  all  read  the  Bible !  The  Bible  plain !  Why 
there  was  less  dispute  among  men  as  to  the  interpretation  of 
the  Vedas,  of  Chinese  chronology,  or  of  Egyptian  archaeology, 
than  of  this  plain  and  intelligible  book,  which,  to  the  eternal  dis- 
honor of  Protestant  commentators,  had  now  almost  ceased  to 
have  any  definite  meaning  whatever,  because  every  imaginable 
meaning  had  been  defended  by  some,  and  denied  by  others.  Plain  ! 
when  such  a  man  as  St.  Augustine — who  was  a  professor  of  rhetoric 
before  he  became  a  Christian,  and  a  man  of  gigantic  intellect — 
frankly  avowed  that  "  the  Bible  contained  more  things  which  he 
could  not,  than  which  he  could  understand."  Plain  !  when  the  two 
most  cherished  dogmas  of  Protestantism — the  observance  of  the 
Sunday,  and  the  reading  of  the  New  Testament — are  nowhere 
commanded  by  our  Lord,  the  Evangelists,  or  the  Apostles.  Plain ! 
when  Bishop  Colenso,  in  writing  to  the  Times,  could  quote  eleven 
texts  of  Scripture  to  prove  that  prayer  ought  not  to  be  offered  to 
our  Blessed  Lord.  Plain  !  when  their  own  Church  flatly  denied  it, 
and  admitted  that  she  could  not  infallibly  know  the  truth,  by 
honestly  confessing  that  she  could  not  infallibly  teach  it.  Plain! 
when  every  bishop  and  every  clergyman,  in  every  charge  and  every 
sermon,  proved  that  it  was  not.  Every  shuffling  decision  of  the 
Privy  Council  proved  that  it  was  not.  Every  gossiping  conclave 
at  Exeter  Hall  proved  that  it  was  not.  Every  conflicting  debate 
of  Convocation  proved  that  it  was  not.  The  very  heathen  proved 
that  it  was  not;  for  they  jeeringly  replied  to  Protestant  mission- 
aries, "Since  you  all  read  the  Book,  why  don't  you  all  agree  about 
it?"  Finallv,  a  hundred  sects  outside  the  Church,  and  five  hun- 
dred  within  her,  proved  that  it  was  not,  and  that  its  boasted 
plainness  came  at  last  to  this,  that  the  only  common  truth  which 
all  men  agreed  to  derive  from  it  was  the  historical  doctrine  of  an 
historical  Saviour. 

MR.  KIDBS  would  add,  with  devout  gratitude,  "and  the  cor- 
dial abhorrence  of  Popery." 

THE  PROFESSOR,  would  ask  permission  to  waive,  at  least  for 
the  moment,  that  profoundly  philosophical  dogma,  observing  only 


42  THE   COMEDY   OF   CONVOCATION 

that  at  least  Roman  Catholics  did  not  gather  that  doctrine  from 
the  Bible,  and  that  they  were  the  largest  body  of  Christians  in  the 
world.  Meanwhile,  he  would  request  Mr.  Kidds  to  observe  that 
Bible  Christianity  had  this  inconvenience,  that  it  degraded  all 
Truth  to  Opinion^  and  whilst  it  ridiculed  infallibility  as  diffused 
throughout  the  Ptoman  Church,  it  made  itself  far  more  ridiculous 
by  claiming  for  every  individual  what  it  denied  to  the  largest  and 
most  ancient  of  communions.  The  truth  was,  that  Protestantism, 
on  the  Bible-theory,  was,  in  principle,  "Popery,"  multiplied  by  as 
many  individuals  as  there  were  Protestants  in  the  world.  Instead 
of  one  infallible  Pope, — who  at  least  was  never  known  to  reverse 
the  dogmatical  decisions  of  those  who  had  gone  before  him, — they 
had  now  got  several  millions  of  infallible  individuals,  who  were 
incessantly  occupied  in  contradicting  one  another.  He  did  not 
know  that  they  had  gained  much  by  the  change.  If  the  aggregate 
infallibility  of  the  Roman  Church  was  hard  to  stomach,  the  personal 
infallibility  of  every  one  of  your  neighbours  was  simply  intolerable. 
But  what  he  desired  most  to  recommend  to  the  notice  of  Mr.  Kidds 
and  his  party  was  this,  that  none  went  so  far  as  they  to  discredit 
infallibility,  by  the  manner  in  which  they  claimed  it  for  themselves; 
and  none  went  so  far  to  prove  it,  by  the  manner  in  which  they 
denied  it  to  the  Catholic  Church.  To  quote  the  words  of  a  modern 
Roman  Catholic:  "Protestants,  by  denying  the  Catholic  theory, 
have  proved  the  impossibility  of  knowing  what  is  necessary  to 
salvation;  and  by  asserting  the  Protestant  theory,  they  have  pre- 
sented to  the  world  the  prodigious  spectacle  of  every  man  differing 
at  every  point  of  his  own  (hypothetical)  infallibility." 

DEAN  PRIMITIVE  would  venture  to  ask  the  Professor,  who 
seemed  to  display  equal  contempt  for  both  parties  in  his  own 
Church,  while  he  manifested  at  least  an  intellectual  sympathy  with 
Roman  claims,  how  he  could  reconcile  it  to  his  conscience  to 
retain  his  Professorial  Chair? 

THE  PROFESSOR  replied :  It  made  one  smile  to  be  asked  in 
those  days,  whether  any  particular  opinion,  or  set  of  opinions,  in- 
volved disloyalty  to  the  Established  Church.  What  opinion  was  not 
held  within  its  communion?  Were  not  Dr.  Wilberforce  and  Dr. 
olenso,  Dr.  Hamilton    and   Dr.  Baring,  equally  bishops  of  the 


IN  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH.  43 

Church  of  England?     Were  not  Dr.  Pusey  and  Mr.  Jowett  at  the 
same  moment  her  Professors  ;  Brother  Ignatius  and  Mr.  Bellow  her 
ministers ;  Archdeacon  Denison  and  Dr.  M'Neile  her  distinguished 
ornaments  and  preachers  ?     Yet  their  religions  differed  almost  as 
widely  as  Buddhism  from  Calvinism,  or  the  philosophy  of  Aristotle 
from  that  of  Mr.  Martin  Tupper.     A  good  many  things  were  dead 
amongst  them  besides  the  Test  Act.     He  doubted  if  even  Hoadley 
would  be  prosecuted  now,  and  was  quite  sure  he  would  not  be  pros- 
ecuted with  success.    Dr.  Hampden  had  been  called  in  an  Anglican 
paper    "as  well-known  a  heretic  as  Arius  was,"  and  yet  was  as 
truly  an  Anglican  bishop  as  Ken  or  Jeremy  Taylor.    The  "Essays 
and  Reviews"  were  condemned  only  the  other  day  by  a  majority 
of  Convocation ;  yet  one  of  their  ablest  contributors  continued  to 
be  chaplain  to  the  Queen,  who  was  the  head  of  their  Church.    Dr. 
Stanley  had  been  excommunicated  by  Dr.  Wordsworth,  yet  thi3 
only   confirmed   his    appointment   as   Dean   of  Westminster,    and 
might  even  materially  assist  him  in  becoming  Archbishop  cf  Can- 
terbury.    Resign  his  office  for  conscience  sake !  continued  the  Pro- 
fessor :  he  was  really  incapable  of  an  act  at  once  so  presumptuous 
and  so  unnecessary.     Who  was  he  that  he  should  teach  a  com- 
munion so  reluctant  to  enforce  them  the  forgotten  claims  of  con- 
science?    He  would  advise  his  friend  Dean  Primitive  to  be  very 
cautious  in  recommending  "  resignation  "  to  those  from  whom  he 
differed.     If  an  Anglican  minister  must  resign  because  his  opin- 
ions were  at  variance  with  those  of  some  other  Anglican  minister, 
every  soul  among  them  would  have  to   retire — from  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury  down  to  the  last  licentiate   from   Durham 
or  St.  Bees.     (Great  laughter.)     Puesignation  would  be  a  clumsy 
remedy  for  the  evils  which  they  all  confessed ;  it  would  cure  the 
disease,  but  it  would  kill  the  patient.    Other  members  of  his  party 
were  more  worldly-wise  than  Dean  Primitive.     Mr.  Bennett  had 
lately  addressed  a  letter  to  Dr.  Pusey,  in  which,  while  declaring 
that  their  controversy  with  the  Low-Church  clergy  was  a  matter 
of  "life  and  death,"  he  argued  that  the  latter  ought  to  be  allowed 
to  "remain  in  their  communion."     If  he  approved  th's  plea, — as 
consistent  with  the  spirit  and  the  history  of  the  Anglican  Church, 
whose  motto  was,  "Live  and  let  live,"  and  which  had  always  been 
more  solicitous  to  keep  men  of  different  religions  within  her  pale 
than  to  force  them  to  go  out, — he  would  not  conceal  that,  from 


44  THE   COMEDY   OF   CONVOCATION 

another  point  of  view,  the  language  of  Mr.  Bennett  filled  him  with 
disgust  and  contempt.  It  was  a  fresh  proof  how  little  men  of  his 
school  really  cared  for  the  mysterious  doctrines  about  which  they 
talked  so  glibly,  since  they  were  quite  willing  to  "  remain  in  com- 
munion "  with  men  who  flatly  denied  them,  and  even  publicly  in- 
sisted that  the  latter  had  as  good  a  right  as  themselves  to  be 
teachers  in  the  Anglican  Church  !  What  could  such  men  care 
about  what  they  impudently  called  "  the  Truth  t  "     (Sensation.) 

But  he  would  ask  Dean  Primitive,  who  was  probably  more  sin- 
cere than  others  of  his  party,  why  any  man  should  "resign," 
whatever  his  opinions  might  be,  when  the  Privy  Council  had  de- 
cided that  it  was  lawful  to  hold  cither  of  two  opposite  doctrines? 
If  there  was  only  one  dogma  in  the  Church  of  England,  why  did 
she  tolerate  within  her  pale  two  discordant  dogmas  upon  almost 
every  fact  and  tenet  of  Christianity  ?  Why  did  she  treat  every 
article  of  the  faith  as  the  false  mother  was  willing  to  treat  the 
child  not  her  own,  and  consent  to  kill  by  cutting  it  in  two  ?  Why 
did  Privy  Council  permit  no  definite  doctrine;  and  Convocation 
agree  upon  none  ?  Why  was  Archdeacon  Denison  tried  for 
preaching  the  Real  Presence,  and  let  off  because  it  was  proved 
that  he  did  so;  while  Dr.  Forbe3  was  convicted  of  holding  Tran- 
substantiation,  and  excused  because  he  engaged  not  to  teach  it? 
Why  did  Dr.  Sumner  appoint  Mr.  Gorham  to  a  benefice  because 
he  denied  Regeneration  in  Baptism,  and  the  Sovereign  make  Dr. 
Philpotts  a  bishop  because  he  believed  it?  Why  did  the  Bishop 
of  Salisbury  deliver  a  charge  in  which  he  informed  his  diocese 
that  more  than  half  the  English  clergy  were  heretics,  while  the 
Bishop  of  Durham  deposed  a  Rural  Dean  for  teaching  the  very 
doctrines  which  the  Bishop  of  Salisbury  declared  to  be  divine? 
Why  did  the  Queen  make  Dr.  Colenso  her  bishop  at  Natal,  though 
her  own  Courts  declared  that  she  had  no  power  to  do  so,  yet  suffer 
her  Bishop  at  Cape  Town  to  try  to  remove  him  by  an  authority  as 
visionary  as  her  own  ?  Why  did  Dr.  Pusey  advocate  the  union  of 
the  English  Church  with  those  of  Rome  and  Moscow,  excluding  the 
Scandinavian  and  other  Protestant  bodies;  while  Dr.  Tait,  rejoicing 
in  the  ministry  of  Mr.  Spurgeon,  proposed  to  exclude  both  Rome  and 
Moscow,  and  to  unite  the  Anglican  See  of  London  with  the  Taber- 
nacle of  a  Baptist  preacher?  But  it  was  idle  to  ask  the  "why" 
of  all  the  monstrous  phenomena  which  were   constantly  passing 


IN   THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH.  45 

oefore  their  eyes,  and  which  were  now  too  much  a  matter  of 
course  to  excite  even  the  passing  curiosity  of  the  public.  They 
proved — and  this  was  his  answer  to  Dean  Primitive — that  the  only 
real  disqualification  for  remaining  in  the  Church  of  England  was, 
not  the  holding  opinions  contradicted  by  those  around  you,  but  the 
holding  any  definite  opinion  whatever.  That  alone,  he  was  pre- 
pared to  maintain,  was  the  sole  unpardonable  inconsistency  with 
the  principles  of  the  Anglican  Church. 

DR.  THEORY  hoped  that  the  Professor  would  not  resume  his 
seat,  without  favoring  the  House  with  his  opinion  on  Dr.  Easy's 
hypothesis. 

THE  PROFESSOR  must  decline  to  give  hi3  own  opinion, 
though  of  course  he  had  one,  on  the  question  proposed  by  Dr. 
Easy;  but  he  had  no  objection  to  state  how  he  conceived  it 
ought  to  be  answered  by  the  so-called  Bible-Christian.  That 
answer  might  be  as  follows  : 

The  existence  of  a  Church  assumes  the  existence  of  a  God ; 
therefore,  the  denial  of  a  God  would  be  the  same  with  a  denial 
of  a  Church.  But  the  Church  of  England  is  a  fact.  Her  teaching 
may  be  doubtful  or  contradictory,  but  her  existence  as  a  politico- 
ecclesiastical  institution,  professing  belief  in  a  God,  is  beyond 
dispute.  It  would,  therefore,  be  heresy  in  the  Bible-Christian  to 
deny  the  existence  of  a  God,  but  it  was  quite  open  to  him  to 
believe  in  any  kind  of  divinity  he  might  prefer,  and  to  clothe  Him 
with  whatever  attributes  the  Privy  Council  had  permitted  Him  to 
retain.  For  example :  the  Justice  of  God  was  evidently  an  open 
question,  because  the  Privy  Council  bad  decided  that  punishment 
was  not  necessarily  eternal.  The  Truthfulness  of  God  was  very 
doubtful,  because  the  Privy  Council  had  decreed  that  God's 
revelation  to  man  was,  perhaps,  not  plenarily  inspired.  The 
Faithfulness  of  God  was  more  than  obscure,  because  the  Privy 
Council  had  ruled  that  Baptism  was  not  necessarily  the  Sacrament 
of  Regeneration.  Finally,  the  Unity  of  God  was  impossible,  because 
the  Privy  Council  had  repeatedly  affirmed  that  truth  was  not  one 
but  manifold.  The  Bible-Christian  might,  therefore,  argue  that  it 
would  be  heresy  to  deny  the  existence  of  a  God,  because,  as  he  had 


46      .  THE   COMEDY   OF   CONVOCATION 

said,  the  existence  of  the  Church  implied  the  existence  of  some 
kind  of  divinity ;  but  that  it  would  not  be  heresy  to  deny  any 
one  of  His  attributes,  because,  if  the  supreme  Anglican  tribunal 
spoke  truly,  it  was  hardly  possible  that  God  should  have  any. 

DR.  EA.SY  was  grateful  to  the  learned  Professor  for  the  light 
which  he  had  thrown  upon  the  question  which  he  had  ventured  to 
submit  to  their  examination.  The  debate  had  elicited  precisely 
the  conclusion  at  which  he  desired  to  arrive.  It  was,  however, 
to  be  regretted  that  the  Privy  Council,  whose  chief  aim  was  to 
decide  nothing,  had  really  decided,  by  implication,  that  the  exist- 
ence of  God  was  an  open  question.  Such  a  decision  might  be 
fruitful  of  evil.  Every  one  was  privately  aware  that,  in  the  Church 
of  England,  nothing  was  necessarily  anything.  Still,  it  was  a 
pity  to  burden  the  consciences  of  good  men  by  obliging  them  to 
think  that  they  must  necessarily  take  the  unnecessary  view  of 
Christianity.  It  had  really  come  to  this,  thanks  to  the  bungling 
caution  of  the  Privy  Council,  that  the  only  dogma  now  left  to  them, 
besides  the  fallibility  of  their  Church,  might  be  thus  expressed : 
"  The  necessity  of  taking  the  non-necessary  view  of  everything ;" 
or  perhaps,  as  a  substitute  for  Creed,  Catechism,  and  Articles,  they 
might  enunciate  the  whole  scope  of  Anglican  theology  in  this  one 
proposition :  "  Unbelief,  considered  as  generally  necessary  to 
salvation." 

On  the  other  hand,  he  would  be  the  last  to  deny  their  obligations 
to  the  Privy  Council,  which  was  the  mildest  and  best-bred  of 
human  tribunals.  What  could  surpass  the  considerateness  with 
which  it  said  to  every  defendant  summoned  to  its  bar:  "Pray,  do 
not  let  me  hamper  your  Christian  freedom,  nor  interfere  with  your 
disbelieving  half  or  the  whole  of  Christianity.  You  object  to 
Baptism?  Well,  well,  the  Church  will  not  be  severe  upon  you  for 
that.  You  doubt  Plenary  Inspiration  ?  Then  pray,  my  dear  sir, 
don't  believe  it.  You  detest  the  notion  of  a  Sacrifice?  We  have 
already  decided  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  an  altar  in  the 
Church  of  England.  You  are  shocked  at  the  idea  of  the  eternity 
of  punishment?  We  will  meet  your  views,  and  invent  a  new  kind 
of  Anglican  Purgatory  for  you  instead."  Considering  that  every 
possible  variety  of  belief  and  unbelief  existed  in  their  Church,  and 
had  existed  from  the  beginning,  was  it  a  light  advantage  to  possess 


IN   THE"  ENGLISH   CHURCH.  47 

an  authority  so  mild  and  gentle,  whose  decisions  were  so  admirably 
adapted  to  the  circumstances  of  the  times?  "Come  to  me,"  it 
seemed  to  say,  "whenever  you  feel  the  burden  of  any  doctrine  or 
tenet,  and  I  will  do  my  best  to  arrange  it  comfortably  for  you. 
Place  the  fullest  confidence  in  me.  I  know  the  history  and  the 
character  of  the  Church  whose  voice  I  am ;  and,  as  I  have  never 
yet  obliged  you  to  believe  anything  to  which  you  object,  you  mav 
repose  in  the  tranquil  assurance  that  I  never  will." 

ARCHDEACON  JOLLY  was  so  much  impressed  by  the  obser- 
vations of  the  preceding  speaker,  that  he  thought  they  should  not 
separate  without  expressing,  in  a  more  formal  way,  their  gratitude 
to  the  Privy  Council.  He  was  inclined  to  propose  something  more 
practical  than  a  barren  vote  of  thanks.  Let  the  now  unmeaning 
words  of  their  Prayer-Book  be  altered  so  as  to  be  in  harmony  with 
facts  and  with  the  new  decisions.  It  would  be  something  to  make 
a  beginning,  which  their  critics  scoffingly  affirmed  Convocation  was 
quite  unable  to  do.  He  would  move  the  following  vote :  "  That 
that  portion  of  the  Catechism  be  recast  which  teaches  that  there 
are  '  two  sacraments,  as  generally  necessary  to  salvation ;'  and  that, 
in  answer  to  the  question,  'How  many  sacraments  are  there?'  the 
clause  should  stand  thus :  '  Two  only,  as  formerly  necessary  to 
salvation,  but  one  of  them  not  so  necessary  now  as  it  used  to  be.'  '*■ 

DEAN  BLUNT  feared  the  new  formula  would  hardly  satisfy 
the  requirements  of  the  age.  He  thought  that  if  they  took  the 
sense  of  the  country,  it  would  be  more  truthful  to  render  the 
clause  thus :  "  Two  only,  as  equally  -unnecessary  to  salvation,  but 
baptism  to  be  viewed  as  rather  an  impediment  to  salvation  than 
otherwise." 

ARCHDEACON  JOLLY  would  consider  the  amendment  during 
the  recess. 

THE  REV.  LAVENDER  KIDDS  here  rose  in  much  excite- 
ment. He  would  boldly  declare  his  opinion  that  the  debate  of 
that  day  was  a  disgrace  to  a  Protestant  House  of  Convocation. 
He  trusted  that  Convocation  would  deem  it  a  solemn  duty  not 
to  separate  without,   at   least,   renewing  its  protest  against  tha 


48  the'  comedy  of  convocation 

iniquitous  Church  of  Rome.  He  would  presume  to  add  that,  uy 
that  step  alone,  it  could  repair  much  that  was  unscriptural  and 
unsound  in  the  discussion  of  that  day.  He  was  prepared,  if 
necessary,  to  make  a  formal  motion  to  the  effect  that  "  Convo- 
cation continues  to  regard  with  horror  the  corruption  and  super- 
ntitions  of  Popery."  This  was  the  first  and  holiest  duty  of  every 
vital  Christian. 

ARCHDEACON  JOLLY  doubted  whether  the  universal  Nego 
of  Mr.  Kidds  and  his  friends  could  combat  successfully  the  eternal 
Credo  of  two  hundred  millions  of  Catholics.  However,  he  was 
quite  willing  to  consider  Mr.  Kidds'  proposition ;  but  he  must  be 
excused  if  he  did  so  from  his  own  point  of  view. 

There  was  a  large  class  of  persons  in  this  country,  continued  the 
Archdeacon,  who,  having  no  definite  religion  of  their  own,  and 
being  slenderly  endowed  with  common  sense,  were  indebted  to  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  both  for  employment  and  maintenance. 
Let  Mr.  Kidds  restrain  his  excitement;  he  would  explain  his 
meaning.  He  did  not,  of  course,  include  Mr.  Kidds  among  the 
class  in  question,  though  he  believed  that  gentleman  would  wil- 
lingly accept  the  statement  of  Sterne,  who  candidly  confessed,  that 
"  when  he  had  little  to  say,  or  little  to  give  his  people,  he  had 
recourse  to  the  abuse  of  Popery.  Hence  he  called  it  his  '  Cheshire 
Cheese.'  It  had  a  twofold  advantage ;  it  cost  him  very  little,  and 
he  found  by  experience  that  nothing  satisfied  so  well  the  hungry 
appetite  of  his  congregation.     They  always  devoured  it  greedily." 

Perhaps  Mr.  Kidds  was  not  aware  that  in  his  zeal  to  hasten  the 
downfall  of  Popery/ — which,  even  according  to  modern  prophets, 
had  still  a  few  years  to  last,  and  which,  judging  by  a  recent  tour 
he  had  made  on  the  Continent,  presented  anything  but  a  moribund 
aspect, — he  was  in  violent  opposition  with  many  active  and  devoted 
Protestants.  The  persons  to  whom  he  alluded  were,  at  this  moment, 
full  of  anxiety,  lest  Popery  should  perish  too  soon  !  They  could 
not  afford  to  say  farewell  to  their  old  friend  at  present,  and  desired 
only  to  keep  him  on  his  legs  a  little  longer.  Mr.  Kidds  was  pro- 
bably ignorant  that  a  society  had  recently  been  formed  in  London, 
in  connection,  he  believed,  with  the  Protestant  Reformation  Society, 
to  which  it  was  designed  to  act  as  a  timely  and  important  auxiliary. 
The  title  of  this  new  association  was  :  "  Society  for  considering  the 


IN   TIIE    ENGLISH    CHURCH.  49 

hest  means  of  keeping  alive  the  corruption's  of  Popery  in  the  interests 
of  Gospel  truth."  It  was,  of  course,  a  strictly  secret  organization, 
but  lie  bad  been  favoured,  he  knew  not  why,  with  a  copy  of  the 
prospectus,  and  as  he  had  no  intention  of  becoming  a  member,  he 
would  communicate  it  to  the  House.  It  appeared  from  this  docu- 
ment, and  could  be  confirmed  from  other  sources,  that  a  deputation 
was  sent  last  year  to  Rome,  to  obtain  a  private  interview  with  the 
Pope,  in  order  to  entreat  His  Holiness  not  to  reform  a  single  Popish 
corruption.  He  was  assured  that  they  had  reason  to  believe,  he  did 
not  know  on  what  grounds,  that  the  Pope  was  about  to  introduce 
extensive  reforms,  beginning  with  the  substitution  of  the  Thirty- 
Nine  Articles  for  the  creed  of  Pope  Pius,  and  a  permanent  Anglican 
Convocation  in  lieu  of  an  occasional  oecumenical  Council.  A  hand- 
some present  was  entrusted  to  the  deputation,  and  a  liberal  contri- 
bution to  the  Peter's  Pence  Fund.  The  motives  set  forth  in  the 
preamble  of  the  address  presented  to  His  Holiness  were,  in  substance, 
of  the  following  nature : — They  urged  that  a  very  large  body  of 
most  respectable  clergymen,  who  had  no  personal  ill-will  towards 
the  present  occupant  of  the  Holy  See,  had  maintained  themselves 
and  their  families  in  comfort  for  mauy  years  exclusively  by  the 
abuse  of  Popery;  and  if  Popery  were  taken  away,  they  could  not 
but  contemplate  the  probable  results  with  uneasiness  and  alarm. 
Moreover,  many  eminent  members  of  the  profession  had  gained  a 
reputation  for  Evangelical  wit,  learning,  and  piety,  as  well  as  high 
dignities  in  the  Church  of  England,  by  setting  forth  in  their  sermons 
and  at  public  meetings,  with  all  their  harrowing  details,  the  astound- 
ing abominations  of  the  Church  of  E,ome.  The  petitioners  implored 
His  Holiness  not  to  be  indifferent  to  the  position  of  these  gentlemen.. 
Many  of  their  number  had  privately  requested  the  deputation  to  plead 
their  cause  with  the  amiable  and  benevolent  Pius  IX.  Thus  the  great 
aud  good  Dr.  M'Nickel  represented  respectfully  that  he  had  filled 
his  church,  and  let  all  his  pews,  during  three-and-twenty  years,  by 
elegantly  slandering  priests  and  nuns,  and  powerfully  illustrating 
Bomish  superstitions.  A  clergyman  of  noble  birth  had  attained  to 
the  honors  of  the  episcopate  by  handling  alternately  the  same 
subjects,  and  a  particularly  pleasing  doctrine  of  the  Millennium, 
and  had  thus  been  enabled  to  confer  a  valuable  living  on  his 
daughter's  husband,  who  otherwise  could  not  have  hoped  to  obtain 
one.     An  eminent  canon  of  an  old  Iioman  G\.tholic  abbev.  owed,  his 


60  THE   COMEDY    OF   CONVOCATION 

distinguished  position,  which  he  hoped  to  be  allowed  to  retain,  to 
the  fact  of  his  having  proved  so  clearly  that  the  Pope  was  Anti- 
christ; and  earnestly  entreated  His  Holiness  to  do  nothing  to  forfeit 
that  character.  A  well-known  doctor  of  Anglican  divinity  was  on 
the  point  of  quitting  the  country  in  despair  of  gaining  a  livelihood, 
when  the  idea  of  preaching  against  Popery  was  suggested  to  him, 
and  lie  had  now  reason  to  rejoice  that  he  had  abandoned  the  foolish 
scheme  of  emigration.  Even  a  High-Church  bishop  had  been  so 
hampered  by  suspicions  of  Romanistic  tendencies,  which  were  per- 
fectly unfounded,  that  he  had  only  saved  himself  from  general  dis- 
credit by  incessant  abuse  of  Popery,  though,  he  was  able  to  say,  in 
self-defence,  that  he  did  not  believe  a  word  of  his  own  invectives. 
Finally,  a  young  clergyman,  who  had  not  hitherto  much  dis- 
tinguished himself,  having  often  but  vainly  solicited  a  member  of 
his  congregation  to  favor  his  evangelical  attachment,  at  length  hit 
upon  a  new  expedient,  and  preached  so  ravishing  a  discourse  on  the 
matrimonial  prohibitions  of  the  Romish  Church,  and  drew  so  appal- 
ling a  picture  of  the  domestic  infelicities  of  the  Ptomish  priesthood, 
that  on  the  following  Monday  morning  the  young  lady  made  him 
an  offer  of  her  hand  and  fortune.  It  was  hoped  that  His  Holiness 
would  give  due  consideration  to  interests  so  grave  and  manifold, 
and  not  peril  them  by  hasty  reforms,  which  nobody  desired,  and 
which  nobody  would  receive  with  satisfaction. 

Another  class  of  clergymen  appealed  still  more  urgently  to  the 
forbearance  of  the  Pope.  They  represented  that  they  were  in  the 
habit  of  realising  large  sums  by  the  publication  of  prophetical 
works,  of  which  the  whole  interest  turned  upon  the  approximate 
destruction  of  "  the  Beast,"  and  that,  while  they  indicated,  by  the 
help  of  the  Apocalypse,  the  precise  hour  of  his  fall,  they  yet 
managed  to  put  off  the  final  catastrophe  from  year  to  year,  and 
could  hardly  supply  the  successive  editions  which  the  curiosity  of 
the  public  demanded.  They  hoped  that  His  Holiness  would  do 
nothing  rash  and  imprudent  which  might  compromise  their  par- 
ticular industry.  One  of  these  gentlemen  ingenuously  confessed 
that  without  Antichrist,  who  was  his  best  friend,  and  the  invaluable 
book  of  Ptevelations,  which  was  his  chief  source  of  income,  he  saw 
uotnmg  before  him  but  the  workhouse.  He  begged  to  forward  to 
the  Pope  a  copy  of  each  of  his  works,  including  the  following: — 
"Horns  of  the  Beast,"  neatly  bound,  with  gilt  edges;  "Antichrisi," 


IN  THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH.  51 

handsomely  got  up,  "  positively  his  last  appearance  in  1864,  in  con- 
sequence of  other  engagements,"  with  new  editions  in  1865,  1866, 
and  1867;  also,  "Answer  to  an  insolent  pamphlet,  entitled  'The 
Number  and  Street  of  the  Beast  proved  to  be  that  of  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Comeagain.'" 

Lastly,  even  members  of  Parliament  to  whom  nature  had  not 
been  prodigal  in  intellectual  endowments,  urged  with  great  force 
that  they  were  able  to  get  on  their  legs,  and  to  stay  there,  detail- 
ing the  prodigious  incidents  of  conventual  turpitude;  making  the 
blood  to  curdle,  and  the  hair  to  stand  on  end,  by  thrilling  narra- 
tives of  nuns  immured,  and  clanking  chains,  and  bereaved  mothers, 
invoking  in  agonised  chorus,  "Liberty  and  Mr.  Newdegate."  They 
hoped  the  Pope  would  see  in  this  fact  the  necessity  of  caution,  lest 
he  should  unwittingly  put  to  silence  more  than  one  independent 
member  of  Parliament,  deprive  an  illustrious  assembly  of  its  chief 
amusement,  and  rashly  change  the  composition  of  the  British  House 
of  Commons. 

DEAN  POMPOUS  inquired  (with  a  somewhat  thick  utterance 
but  with  great  dignity  of  manner)  whether  he  understood  the 
Archdeacon  to  say  that  he  had  actually  seen  this  document  ? 

ARCHDEACON  JOLLY:  He  had  certainly  said  so;  it  had 
oeen  shown  to  him  in  Rome  by  Cardinal  Antonelli. 

DEAN  POMPOUS  might  perhaps  hazard  a  suspicion  as  to  its 
authenticity? 

ARCHDEACON  JOLLY:  Had  such  a  document  been  found 
in  London  or  Edinburgh,  the  suspicion  might  be  reasonable,  but, 
having  been  seen  in  Rome,  the  evidence  for  its  authenticity  .must 
be  accepted  in  the  inverse  ratio  of  its  credibility.  This  principle 
would  be  easily  admitted  by  Protestants  of  the  school  of  Mr.  Kidds. 
They  had  only  to  turn  for  proof  to  the  treatise  on  Moral  Evidence 
lately  put  forth  by  the  "  Anglo- Metropolitan  and  General  Super- 
stition Repelling  Association."  At  page  127  of  that  work  they 
would  find  the  following  postulate  : 

"  Let  it  be  granted  that,  in  all  which  relates  to  Rome, 
the  Babylon  of  the  Apocalypse,  a  thing  is  more  or 


52  THE   COMEDY    OF   CONVOCATION 

less  true  in  proportion  to  its  improbability ;  and  that 
those  things  alone  are  absolutely  certain  of  which  it 
can  be  demonstrated  that  they  never  could  by  any 
possibility  have  happened." 

(At  this  point,  as  nobody  rose  to  continue  the  discussion,  it 
neemed  likely  to  close  abruptly.  Several  reverend  divines  took 
their  hats,  and  appeared  about  to  retire,  when  it  was  whispered 
that  Archdeacon  Chasuble  had  intimated  his  desire  to  address  the 
House  on  the  twofold  question  of  Authority  in  the  English,  and 
Infallibility  in  the  Catholic  Church.  Lively  attention  appeared  to 
be  excited  by  this  announcement,  and  the  retiring  members  eagerly 
resumed  their  seats.) 

ABCHDEACON  CHASUBLE  would  begin  by  assuring  his 
colleagues  that  they  would  be  disappointed  if  they  thought  he  was 
going  to  claim  infallibility  for  the  Church  of  England.  (Some 
laughter,  which  was  immediately  suppressed  by  loud  cries  of 
"Order.")  He  had  deep  convictions,  but  he  trusted  that  he  was 
neither  a  dreamer  nor  an  enthusiast.  He  would  not  claim  for  hi3 
Church  a  gift  which  she  had  always  repudiated.  He  began  there- 
fore by  admitting  that  infallibility  could  not  reside  in  a  Church 
which,  in  the  first  hour  of  her  existence,  had  proclaimed  to  the 
world  that  the  whole  of  Christendom,  including  all  the  Apostolic 
Churches,  had  fallen  into  error.  The  original  message  of  the 
Church  of  England  to  all  Christian  nations  was  in  substance  as 
follows :  "  The  fact  that  I  am  required  in  the  sixteenth  century  to 
teach  the  Catholic  Church  proves  that  the  Catholic  Church  has 
become  incompetent  to  teach.  But,  in  recording  this  universal 
defection,  I  am  obliged  to  admit  that  I  also  am  liable  to  error.  I 
cannot  deny  what  is  clearly  involved  in  the  fundamental  axiom 
with  which  I  commence  my  career." 

But  though  the  Anglican  Church  was  thus  confessedly  fallible 
or  human,  did  it  follow  that  she  was  no  true  Church,  and  that  her 
members  were  all  out  of  the  pale  of  Catholicity?  God  forbid. 
No  one  maintained  that  the  Church  of  England  was  the  Catholic 
Church.  Her  most  attached  members  freely  admitted  that  she  was 
but  one  of  several  branches  of  that  Church.  New,  it  was  of  tha 
Catholic  Church,  of  which  he  claimed  to  be  a  member,  and  not  of 


IN   THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH.  53 

the  Church  of  England,  that  he  ventured  to  assert,  She  cannot  err, 
He  would  ask  permission  to  prove  that  proposition. 

If  the  Catholic  Church  were  not  infallible  at  one  period  of  her 
existence, — for  example,  when  she  decreed  the  Canon  of  Holy 
Scripture, — what  assurance  had  they,  or  could  they  have,  that  they 
possessed  the  true  Bible  ?  Saints  had  differed  widely  about  it,  so 
widely  as  to  reject  books  now  admitted  to  be  canonical,  while  they 
admitted  others  now  rejected  as  spurious.  In  the  fourth  century  it 
was  still  an  open  question,  till,  at  length,  it  was  finally  decided  by 
the  authority  of  the  Church.  If  the  Church  were  not  infallible, 
what  was  the  decision  worth  ? 

Again.  If  the  Catholic  Church  were  not  infallible  while  she  was 
building  up  her  creeds  and  constructing  her  liturgies,both  were  a  mere 
bundle  of  human  opinions, which  might  be  partly  true  and  partly  false, 
but  could  never  be  imposed  on  the  conscience  of  mankind.  What  had 
been  framed  by  one  human  authority  might  evidently  be  modified 
by  another.  It  was  therefore  conceivable,  on  the  hypothesis  of 
the  fallibility  of  the  Church,  that  Christians  had  always  had  a  false 
Bible,  false  creeds,  and  false  liturgies.  Nay,  it  was  not  only  con- 
ceivable, but  eminently  probable;  for  how  could  the  human  beget 
the  divine,  or  the  certain  be  born  of  the  fallible  ? 

He  had  not  completed  his  argument,  but  would  pause  to  anti- 
cipate an  objection.  He  might  be  fairly  asked,  "if  the  Church 
were  infallible  when  she  defined  the  Canon  of  Scripture,  by  what 
special  act,  or  at  what  particular  period,  did  she  lose  this  gift  of 
infallibility?"  He  replied  without  hesitation,  she  had  never  lost  it. 
The  gift  was  suspended  for  a  time,  by  reason  of  the  loss  of  unity 
with  which  it  was  indissolubly  associated,  but  it  might  be  recovered 
at  any  moment.  Let  the  Russian,  the  Roman,  the  Greek,  the 
Anglican,  and  the  Oriental  branches  once  more  unite,  and  on  the 
morrow  of  their  reconciliation  the  dormant  gift  of  infallibility  would 
again  revive. 

THE  PROFESSOR  OF  THEOLOGY  would  venture  to  ask  the 
Archdeacon  how  half-a-dozen  hostile  churches,  without  infallibility 
to  guide  them,  could  possibly  arrive  at  a  common  conception  of  the 
doctrines  on  which  they  had  differed  for  ages?  If  the  Church  had 
not  escaped  falling  into  error,  according  to  the  Anglican  hypothesis, 
while  she  still,  according  to  the  Archdeacon,  possessed  both  unity 


54  THE   COMEDY   OF   CONVOCATION 

and  infallibility,  how  could  she  ever  recover  her  position  now  that, 
as  he  confessed,  she  possessed  neither  the  one  nor  the  other? 

ARCHDEACON  CHASUBLE  admitted,  with  deep  sorrow,  the 
force  of  the  objection.  If  infallibility  waited  on  the  re-union  of  the 
warring  churches, — well,  it  was  a  sad  truth  that  there  was  no  early 
prospect  of  its  recovery.  He  confessed  that  he  did  not  see  his  way 
to  answer  the  objection.  Still,  whatever  the  difficulty  might  be,  he 
would  not  the  less  earnestly  protest  against  the  monstrous  notion, 
that  the  Catholic  Church  could  ever  abdicate  the  functions  which 
she  derived  from  her  Founder,  or  lose  the  power  to  "  teach  all 
nations,"  the  very  object  for  which  He  expressly  created  her.  It- 
was  an  intolerable  assumption  that  the  Catholic  Church,  when  she 
infallibly  defined  the  Canon  of  Scripture,  decreed  that  from  that 
moment  she  was  herself  no  longer  infallible,  or  that  she  transferred 
the  infallibility  by  which  she  decreed  the  Canon  to  the  Canon  whose 
infallibility  she  decreed. 

No  doubt  they  were  surrounded  by  difficulties,  and  he  had  too 
much  respect  for  truth  and  honesty  to  deny  their  existence.  If, 
therefore,  he  were  asked,  why  a  Church  which  could  teach  with 
divine  authority  in  the  third  or  fourth  centuries  could  no  longer  do 
30  in  the  tenth  or  fourteenth,  he  admitted  that  he  did  not  know  what 
answer  to  give;  because  if  the  schisms  and  heresies  which  existed 
even  in  the  apostolic  age  did  not  impair  her  prerogative  of  infalli- 
bility then,  it  was  reasonable  to  argue  that  they  could  not  produce 
such  a  consequence  now.  Evidently  the  Church  did  not  become 
human  and  fallible  simply  because  her  enemies  were  called  Luther 
or  Cranmer  instead  of  Cerinthus  or  Marcion,  or  because  the  names 
of  Calvin  or  Burnet  were  substituted  for  those  of  Eutyches  or 
Nestorius.  If  the  earlier  heretics  could  not  rob  the  Church  of  the 
gift  which  God  had  imparted  to  her,  certainly  it  was  hard  to  see 
why  later  adversaries  should  be  able  to  do  so.  If  the  Councils  of 
Nice  or  Ephesus,  as  even  the  Reformers  allowed,  were  the  voice  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  it  was  not  clear  why  those  of  Florence  or  Trent 
had  less  claim  to  their  obedience.  But  it  was  their  sorrowful  lot 
as  Anglicans  to  be  born  to  difficulties.  This  was  their  portion-. 
Alas!  they  could  but  dimly  perceive  the  principles  of  truth;  their 
effectual  application  was  to  them  impossible. 

Still  there  were  certain  verities  which  even  they  could  firmly  grasp, 


IN   THE   ENGLISH    CHURCH.  5fl 

and  it  was  their  duty  to  proclaim  them  aloud,  whatever  fatal  con- 
tradictions they  might  seem  to  involve.  He  would  declare,  there- 
fore, his  own  conviction  that  the  doctrine  of  the  fallibility  of  the 
Catholic  Church  was  simply  blasphemy,  because  it  made  God  un- 
faithful to  his  promises ;  and  palpable  nonsense,  because  it  implied 
that  he  had  founded  a  Teaching  Church  without  giving  it  the  power 
to  teach !  When  the  Anglican  homily  gravely  asserted  that  the 
whole  Church  of  God, — the  home  of  the  saints  and  martyrs — had 
been  "  sunk  in  the  pit  of  damnable  idolatry  by  the  space  of  nine 
hundred  years  and  odd,"  it  made  the  heart  sick  to  think  that  they 
were  themselves  the  heirs  of  the  very  men  who  had  uttered  such 
stupid  profanity.  But  the  founders  of  Anglicanism  had  to  account 
for  and  excuse  their  own  position  in  the  world,  and  this  was  their 
way  of  doing  it.  They  declared,  without  hesitation,  that  God  had 
abandoned  his  own  Church  to  what  had  been  truly  called  a  Diabol- 
ical Millenium.  It  almost  seemed  as  if  they  were  willing  to  pass  for 
madmen,  provided  only  they  might  be  allowed  to  say  of  the  Church 
which  they  had  just  quitted,  that  she  was  as  mad  as  themselves. 

DEAN  CRITICAL  had  listened,  thus  far,  with  deep  attention 
to  his  venerable  friend,  and  would  continue  to  do  so  to  the  end  of 
his  discourse ;  but  would  he  permit  him  to  interrupt  him  for  a  mo- 
ment, in  order  to  ask  a  question  which  was  neither  captious  nor 
insidious?  The  Archdeacon  evidently  did  not  believe  that  the  Cath- 
olic Church  was  infallible  now,  whatever  she  might  have  been  for- 
merly, or  of  course  he  would  instantly  submit  to  her  authority;  yet 
he  distinctly  affirmed  that,  by  the  first  law  of  her  nature,  she  must 
be  so!  Might  they  then  claim  him,  in  spite  of  his  transcendental 
theories,  as  an  advocate,  after  all,  of  the  simple  Protestant  doctrine, 
that  there  was  really  no  such  thing  as  a  Teaching  Church  in  the 
world  ?  He  should  be  glad  to  think  so.  Would  he  also  tell  them, 
since  the  real  subject  of  the  discussion  in  which  they  were  engaged 
was  the  presence  or  absence  of  authority  in  the  English  Church, 
whether  he  frankly  admitted  that  that  Church,  having  no  infalli- 
bility, and  therefore  no  divine  authority,  could  teach  no  certain  truth, 
exact  no  religious  obedience,  and  anathematize  no  doctrinal  error? 

ARCHDEACON  CHASUBLE  was  far  from  professing  to  be 
able  to  f  jiswer  all  the  questions  which  might  be  addressed  to  him. 


56  THE   COMEDY    OF   CONVOCATION 

He  would  content  himself  with  saying,  that  if  there  were  no  other 
ecclesiastical  authority  in  the  world  than  such  as  resided  in  the 
Church  of  England,  it  was  too  evident  that  men  could  possess  no 
certainty  in  their  religious  convictions, — that  they  could  obey  no 
authority  but  what  they  chose  for  themselves, — and  that  heresy 
could  not  be  condemned,  not  only  because  there  was  no  authority 
to  condemn  it,  but  because  in  such  a  state  of  the  Christian  world 
it  could  not  even  exist.  But  to  say  that  there  could  be  no  such 
thing  as  heresy,  was  evidently  the  same  thing  with  saying  that 
there  could  be  no  such  thing  as  truth,  of  which  heresy  was  simply 
the  denial.  Yet  heresy  was  not  only  a  crime,  as  they  learned 
from  St.  Paul,  but  the  greatest  of  all  crimes,  and  might  be  called 
the  high  treason  of  Christians.  Every  other  sin  which  man  could 
commit  was  only  against  the  laws  of  God,  but  this  was  against  His 
-Person  and  Essence.  God  is  truth,  and  heresy  is  the  worship  of 
a  lie,  which  is  God's  greatest  contrary.  Satan,  they  were  told  by 
our  Lord,  was  "  the  father  of  lies."  Heretics  were  therefore  the 
dear  children  of  Satan,  who  fed  them  with  lies. 

For  this  reason,  it  would  seem, — because  heresy  was  nothing 
but  a  part  of  Satan's  warfare  against  God,  and  the  greatest  sin 
which  men  or  devils  could  commit, — the  Bible  spoke  of  it  only  in 
tones  of  appalling  menace  and  anathema.  The  Son  of  God  had 
words  of  compassion  for  the  adulteress,  and  the  stern  St.  Pau1 
commanded  that  the  man  guilty  of  incest  should  be  admitted  tc 
pardon.  Not  so  with  heresy.  There  was  apparently  no  mercy 
for  that.  St.  Paul  had  forbidden  a  Christian  so  much  as  to  "  eat 
with"  a  heretic.  And  yet,  at  least  in  one  of  its  aspects,  heresy 
was  nothing  else  than  disobedience  to  the  divine  authority  of  tho 
Church!  Perhaps  it  was  on  this  account  that  St.  Augustine  had 
intimated  his  opinion  that  wilful  disobedience  to  the  Church  might 
probably  be  the  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost. 

What,  then,  must  they  think  of  a  Church  in  which  heresy  had 
always  been  impossible?  Every  argument  in  the  discussion  of  that 
.lay  nad  combined  to  prove  that  the  Church  of  England  not  only 
permitted  her  members  to  be  heretics,  but  actually  made  it  their 
duty  and  privilege  to  be  so.  Tho  obligation  of  "choosing"  their 
religion  for  themselves,  that  is,  of  being  heretics, — and  whether 
they  happened  to  choose  Koman  or  Lutheran  tenets  made  no.  kind 
of  difference  in  the  sin,  so  long  as  they  chose  for  themselves, — \va3 


IN    THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH.  57 

notoriously  one  of  the  least  ambiguous  injunctions  of  the  Thirty- 
Nine  Articles !  The  Church  of  England  did  not  warn  her  members 
against  heresy,  because  she  did  not  admit  its  existence,  and  because 
she  was  conscious  that  she  had  no  power  to  tell  them  with  certainty 
what  was  truth. 

DEAN  BLUNT  was  unwilling  to  interrupt  the  speaker,  but  he 
felt  constrained  to  observe  that  the  Archdeacon  seemed  to  revel  in 
pointing  out  difficulties,  of  which  he  admitted  the  solution  to  be 
impossible,  and  which  were  enough  to  drive  every  member  of  his 
communion  into  frantic  unbelief.  Would  he  tell  them  plainly, 
Was  there  any  living  authority,  old  or  young,  in  this  nineteenth 
century,  in  any  part  of  the  world,  which  was  charged  by  God  to 
teach  His  creatures — what  is  truth? 

ARCHDEACON  CHASUBLE  shook  his  head,  but  made  no 
reply. 

DEAN  BLUNT  continued :  It  had  come  then  to  this,  that  the 
only  teacher  the  High-Church  party  would  permit  them,  was  one 
which  had  been  dead  and  buried  for  about  fourteen  hundred  years. 
Happy  Christians !  whose  only  chance  of  learning  the  truth,  unless 
they  took  it  from  an  authority  which  confessed  it  could  not  teach 
it,  was  to  sift  the  Fathers,  analyse  the  ecclesiastical  historians,  and 
laboriously  collate  the  records  of  antiquity,  written  in  languages 
which  few  could  comprehend,  all  referring  to  a  higher  witness 
external  to  themselves,  and  equally  claimed  by  Roman,  Greek,  and 
Anglican  theologians,  in  confirmation  of  their  discordant  religious 
tenets !  Certainly  the  Archdeacon  had  not  afforded  them  much 
assistance  in  their  search  after  Anglican  "  Authority."  Perhaps, 
however,  he  would  at  least  be  good  enough  to  inform  them,  since 
heresy  in  the  Church  of  England  was  impossible,  would  it  be  heresy 
in  an  Anglican  to  deny  the  existence  of  God? 

ARCHDEACON  CHASUBLE,  who  rose  with  an  air  of  weari- 
ness and  languor,  would  certainly  venture  to  say  that  if  the  Church 
had  never  been  infallible,  there  was  no  difficulty  in  replying  to  the 
question  proposed  by  Dr.  Easy.  If  there  were  no  infallible  judge 
to  appeal  to,  there  could  be  no  infallible  truth ;  and  if  there  were  no 


58  THE   COMEDY   OF   CONVOCATION 

infallible  truth,  it  was  hard  to  see  how  there  could  be  a  God,  or  at 
least  such  a  God  as  the  Christian  religion  supposed,  who  was 
solicitous  about  the  children  of  men,  and  graciously  yearned  to 
reveal  Himself  to  them.  How,  he  would  ask,  could  there  be  a  God, 
— or,  to  put  it  more  reverently,  how  could  there  be  a  revelation  from 
God  to  man, — unless  there  existed  a  living  authority  upon  earth  to 
teach  man  infallibly  what  that  revelation  was  ?  If  men  might  believe, 
or  were  so  unfavourably  constituted  that  they  must  believe,  many 
different  things  about  God,  or  about  His  truth;  either  such  errors 
were  of  no  importance,  and  a  matter  of  perfect  indifference  to  the 
Most  High,  or  else  they  were  forced  to  admit  that  there  might  be 
many  truths,  that  is,  many  Gods.  For  this  reason,  he  had  always 
maintained  that  Protestantism  could  only  be  true  on  one  of  three 
hypotheses:  either  that  there  was  no  God,  and  therefore  no  truth; 
or, secondly,  many  Gods,  and  therefore  many  truths;  or,  lastly,  one 
God,  who  either  cared  nothing  about  His  creatures,  or  was  incapable 
of  securing  the  execution  of  His  own  promises  to  them,  or  was  of 
such  inconstant  variety  of  purpose  that  He  was  continually  changing 
His  own  views  about  truth,  and  never  remained  in  the  same  mind 
for  twenty  years  together. 

He  concluded,  therefore,  that  to  deny  the  existence  of  an  infallible 
Church,  and  to  deny  the  existence  of  the  God  of  Christians,  were 
virtually  equivalent  propositions.  The  notion  of  a  fallible  church, 
founded  by  an  infallible  God,  was  an  absurdity  and  a  contradiction ; 
such  a  notion  reduced  Christianity  below  the  level  of  the  Indian 
or  Chinese  systems  of  religious  philosophy,  and  made  it  a  dispensa- 
tion of  anarchy  and  chaos.  Truth  could  not  rebuke  error,  because, 
as  had  been  abundantly  proved,  there  was  no  such  thing  as  truth 
or  error,  and  no  possibility  of  distinguishing  between  them  even  if 
they  existed.  The  Protestant  theory  ingeniously  suppressed  all 
heresy,  by  suppressing  the  authority,  the  rejection  of  which  consti- 
tuted heresy.  Treason  could  have  no  existence  where  there  was 
no  magistrate  to  rebel  against.  In  the  same  way,  the  fallible 
Church  invented  by  the  Reformers  was  simply  a  Club  for  specula- 
tive religionists,  who  were  determined  to  enjoy  every  privilege  of 
heresy,  without  incurring'  the  odium  of  it.  If,  therefore,  the 
Christian  Church  were  not  infallible,  he  could  not  resist  the 
logical  conclusion  that  there  was  no  God;  for  that  God  was  no 
true  God  who  could  send  a  Teacher  to  the  nation-*,  and  an  inter- 


IN  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH.  59 

preter  of  His  own  revelation,  as  human,  as  earthly,  and  as  fal.  ible 
as  that  House  of  Convocation  itself.     (Sensation.) 

DR.  CANDOUR  ventured  to  solicit  the  attention  of  his  col- 
leagues while  he  attempted  to  reply  to  the  discourse  which  they 
had  just  heard.  It  was  known  to  most  of  them  that  he  belonged 
neither  to  the  High  nor  the  Low-Church  party;  and  on  this  account 
he  could  speak  impartially  of  both.  In  addressing  himself  to  his 
task,  he  would  endeavor,  by  every  effort  of  which  he  was  capable, 
to  clear  his  mind  of  the  feelings  of  amazement  and  stupefaction 
which  the  speech  of  the  Archdeacon  had  created.  It  was  not  an 
easy  thing  to  do,  but  he  would  honestly  make  the  attempt. 

He  respected  every  sincere  conviction,  and  therefore  he  respected 
a  conscientious  Roman  Catholic;  but  it  really  seemed  to  him  that 
for  a  Protestant  to  talk  about  infallibility  was  an  event  as  wonder- 
ful and  unexpected  as  if  a  Catholic  should  appeal  to' the  Court  of 
Arches,  or  an  Algerian  marabout  should  submit  his  conscience  to 
the  guidance  of  an  English  quaker.  However,  since  they  must  needs 
talk  of  infallibility,  let  them  see  what  they  could  make  of  it. 

Now,  he  must  confess,  at  the  outset,  that  the  doctrine  "once  in- 
fallible, always  infallible,"  appeared  to  him  one  of  the  most  certain 
conclusions  of  common  sense.  If  it  was  difficult  to  believe  that  a 
Church  should  begin  to  be  infallible  which  had  not  been  so  before, 
it  was  impossible  to  admit  that  a  Church  should  cease  to  be  infallible 
which  had  ever  been  so,  even  for  a  moment.  Such  a  gift  could  only 
come  from  God,  and,  therefore,  man  could  not  assume  it;  it  could 
only  be  imparted  because  necessary  to  the  Church,  and,  therefore, 
God  could  not  withdraw  it.  But  it  was  demonstrable,  according  to 
the  Archdeacon,  that  the  Primitive  Church  was  infallible;  therefore 
she  was  infallible  at  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  and  therefore  the 
Reformers  were  children  of  Satan,  and  rebels  against  the  Most 
High.  His  venerable  friend,  if  he  interpreted  his  looks  rightly, 
appeared  to  concur  in  that  statement. 

But  the  Archdeacon  had  assured  them  that  this  magnificent  gift  of 
infallibility,  though  lost  to  the  world  for  the  present,  might  some  daj 
be  recovered.  Before  they  permitted  themselves  to  contemplate  its 
recovery,  let  them  unite  in  deploring  its  loss.  It  was  a  hard  lot  to 
live  in  an  age  when  the  infallible  had  become  the  fallible.  He  did 
not  know  what  the  existing  generation  had  done  to  deserve  it.     Ho 


60  THE   COMEDY   OF   CONVOCATION 

could  not  help  thinking  it  was  a  defective  arrangement  that  infalli- 
bility should  have  existed  in  the  purest  ages,  when  Christians  were  of 
"  one  heart  and  orie  mind,"  and,  consequently,  had  less  need  of  it;  and 
that  it  should  be  withdrawn  at  a  period  of  general  strife  and  con- 
fusion, when  its  presence  would  be  so  very  useful.  But,  as  the 
Archdeacon  had  observed,  it  was  their  lot  to  be  surrounded  by 
difficulties. 

One  consolation,  however,  he  was  willing  to  allow  them, — the 
hope  that  this  gift  might  be  recovered.  When  the  Roman,  Greek, 
and  Anglican  communities  should  all  become  one,  the  Church 
would  be  once  more  infallible.  Three  spurious  and  defective 
Christianities  fused  together,  if  anybody  could  persuade  them  to 
coalesce,  would  make  one  true  and  perfect  Christianity.  The 
giving  up  what  each  believed  specially  true,  and  the  uniting  in 
what  each  believed  specially  false,  was  that  travail  in  the 
womb  of  Christendom  which  would  give  birth  to  the  new  infalli- 
bility. He  would  only  say,  as  the  Professor  of  Theology  had  dis- 
posed of  that  point,  that  this  was  an  obstetrical  phenomenon  which 
he  did  not  think  any  one  present  would  live  long  enough  to 
witness. 

But,  he  would  now  approach  another  aspect  of  the  question,  to 
which  the  Archdeacon  had  attracted  their  attention.  The  Low- 
Church  theory,  he  had  told  them,  and  the  language  of  their  Articles 
and  Homilies,  which  assumed  the  defection  of  the  Catholic  Church, 
"  made  void  the  promises  of  God."  Was  the  Archdeacon  quite  sure 
that  Low-Churchmen  were  the  real  or  sole  offenders  ?  He  thought 
not.  Let  him  ask  his  friend  whether  even  the  "Diabolical  Mil- 
lennium" of  the  English  Reformers,  that  dismal  interval  between  the 
sixth  and  sixteenth  centuries,  was  a  conception  more  insolently  sub- 
versive of  the  promises  of  God,  more  fatal  to  the  Catholic  idea  of  a 
divine,  indefectible,  and  "Teaching  Church,"  than  the  well-known 
Anglican  conceit,  that  the  Early  Church  was  wholly  pure,  the 
Mediaeval  much  less  pure,  and  the  Modern  quite  unworthy  of  their 
obedience  ?  Was  it  really  so  very  respectful  to  the  Catholic  idea, 
of  which  the  Archdeacon  claimed  to  be  the  advocate,  to  assert,  as 
he  and  his  party  did  in  every  act  of  their  lives,  that,  in  spite  of  the 
"  promises  of  God,"  the  only  really  perfect  Church  at  this  hour, 
protesting  at  once  against  Protestant  heresies  and  Popish  corrup- 


IN   THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH.  61 

tions,  was  the  little  group  of  Puseyites  and  Ritualists  within  the 
National  Establishment?     (Great  laughter.) 

The  Archdeacon  had  reproached  the  Low-Church  school,  and 
the  founders  of  Anglicanism,  with  making  void  the  promises  of 
God.  Let  the  House  consider  how  the  High-Church  party  inter- 
preted those  promises  for  themselves.  According  to  their  theory, 
the  promise  to  be  "  always  "  with  the  Church  applied  only  to  the 
beginning  and  the  end  of  her  career,  but  not  to  the  long  interval 
between  the  two,  during  which  the  whole  of  Christendom  was  hope- 
lessly sunk  in  error  and  corruption.  It  was  curious  to  see  that 
the  High-Church  party  cordially  agreed  with  ultra-Protestants, 
that  the  Catholic  Church  during  long  ages  had  been  teaching  false- 
hoods !     This  was  their  reverence  for  "  the  promises  of  God  !  " 

Again.  The  promise  to  guide  the  Church  into  "all  truth  "  had 
reference  only  to  the  integrity  of  truth,  before  the  mission  of  St. 
Augustine  to  England,  and  after  the  publication  of  the  "Tracts 
for  the  Times."  The  twelve  hundred  years  between  them,  rather 
a  long  period  in  the  life  of  the  Church,  during  which  all  Christians 
obstinately  believed  the  supremacy  of  the  Pope,  the  office  of  the 
Mother  of  God,  and  the  Mystery  of  Transubstantiation, — doctrines 
highly  offensive  to  Puseyites, — were  merely  an  unfortunate  paren- 
thesis in  the  faithfulness  of  God,  during  which  the  Catholic  idea 
was  lamentably  obscured,  and  God  forgot  His  "promises." 

Once  more.  The  promise  that  the  "  gates  of  hell "  should  "never  " 
prevail  against  the  Church  meant  only,  according  to  the  same 
school,  that  the  principalities  of  evil,  doing  active  work  under  the 
father  of  lies,  should  certainly  prevail  for  a  good  many  centuries, 
but  that  finally  a  little  sect  should  rise  up  in  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, able  to  discriminate  with  precision  the  errors  of  the  Angli- 
can, the  Greek,  and  the  Roman  Churches,  and  peacefully  to  conduct 
them  all  to  the  perfect  truth  which  they  had  lost,  to  the  unity 
which  they  had  forfeited,  and  to  a  very  remarkable  and  final  triumph 
over  the  "gates  of  hell." 

Perhaps  the  House  would  now  be  disposed  to  admit  that,  in 
point  of  vigorous  and  unflinching  Protestantism,  there  was  not 
much  difference  between  High  and  Low-Churchmen.  (General 
marks  of  approval.)  Indeed,  he  was  inclined  to  agree  with  the 
learned  Professor,  that  in  deliberate  and  self-conscious  hostility  to 
Catholic  principles,  and  especially  to  the  doctrine  of  a  Teaching 


62  THE   COMEDY   OF   CONVOCATION 

Church,  High -Churchmen  outstripped  their  rivals  of  every  other 
Protestant  community,  and  left  both  English  Puritans  and  Scotch 
Covenanters  far  in  the  rear.  There  was  a  certain  steadfast  malice 
in  their  warfare  against  the  Catholic  Church,  which  they  seemed  to 
treat  as  a  personal  enemy,  and  a  certain  cold  and  reflecting  abhor- 
rence of  her  claims,  of  which  the  ordinary  Protestant  was  perfectly 
incapable;  and  while  the  Puseyites  used  language  about  the  glories 
of  "  the  Bride  of  Christ,"  and  the  "  Communion  of  Saints,"  which 
no  other  Protestants  could  use,  they  always  ended  by  making  cruel 
havoc  of  both,  and  declining  to  have  any  communion  whatever  with 
any  one  but  themselves.  The  Christian  Church  was  certainly  in- 
fallible, Archdeacon  Chasuble  assured  them,  for  this  was  her  most 
essential  quality;  but.  somehow  it  had  come  to  pass,  in  the  lapse 
of  ages,  that  they,  the  Puseyites,  found  it  necessary  to  judge  the 
Church,  deny  her  claims,  reprove  her  errors,  and  offer  to  recon- 
struct her  on  a  new  basis.  God  had  failed,  but  they  had  come  to 
His  assistance.  The  infallibility  of  the  Universal  Church,  which 
was  at  least  an  imposing  idea,  had  dwindled  by  degrees  to  the  in- 
fallibility of  a  few  dozen  English  clergymen,  which,  he  would  take 
leave  to  say,  was  simply  comical. 

But  his  venerable  friend  had  also  informed  them  that  he  was  a 
"Catholic."  Now,  let  them  compare  the  definition  of  this  term  by 
the  High  and  Low-Church  schools  respectively,  and  say  which  was 
the  most  worthy  of  their  applause.  In  the  Low-Church  philosophy, 
to  be  a  Catholic  was  to  be  in  communion  with  all  with  whom  you 
professed  to  differ;  in  the  High-Church  philosophy,  it  was  to  be 
out  of  communion  with  all  with  whom  you  claimed  to  agree.  In 
the  one, it  was  the  harmony  of  universal  differences;  in  the  other, 
it  whs  the  unity  of  three  opposing  Churches,  two  of  which  despised 
the  third,  while  each  anathematised  the  other.  In  the  Eoman 
sense,  which,  at  least,  was  rational  and  intelligible,  it  meant  the 
absolute  oneness  in  doctrine  and  discipline  of  all  the  Churches  which 
composed  the  Catholic  communion ;  in  the  Puseyite  sense,  which 
was  irrational  and  absurd,  it  was  simply  the  arbitrary  classification 
of  a  hundred  different  objects  under  one  name.  The  Catholicity  of 
Rome  might  oe  compared  to  a  Tree,  which  had  its  roots  in  every 
land,  and  displayed  in  all  the  same  fruits  and  the  same  foliage; 
the  Catholicity  of  Puseyism  was  at  best  an  artificial  bouquet  of 


IN   THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH.  63 

incongruous  vegetable  forms,  composed  of  a  rose,  a  cabbage,  a  tulip, 
and  an  onion,  tied  together  by  a  shoe-string.     (Much  laughter.) 

Resuming  the  three  points  to  which  he  had  referred, —  the 
promises  of  God,  the  infallibility  of  the  Church,  and  the  title  of 
Catholic, — he  would  say,  without  hesitation,  that  if  he  must  accept 
all  three  together,  it  was  only  in  the  Roman  Church  that  he  should 
look  for  such  a  combination.  For  if  Infallibility  were  the  essential 
prerogative  of  a  Teaching  Church,  it  could  only  exist  in  that  Insti- 
tution which  alone  had  always  claimed  it,  both  as  her  gift  by 
promise,  and  the  sole  explanation  of  her  triumphs  and  her  per- 
petuity. It  would  be  the  idlest  of  dreams  to  search  for  it  in  a 
fractional  part  of  a  modern  community,  which  had  always  disowned 
and  scoffed  at  it,  and  which  could  only  account  for  its  own  existence 
on  the  very  rational  plea,  that  the  Promises  of  God  had  signally 
failed,  and  that  it  alone  was  able  to  correct  the  failure. 

It  only  remained  for  him,  in  order  to  exhaust  the  topics  of  the 
Archdeacon's  address,  to  examine,  if  the  House  would  permit  him, 
that  very  remarkable  doctrine  which  was  generally  known  as  "  the 
Branch-theory."  He  thought  it  would  not  be  difficult  to  show,  that 
if  the  Archdeacon  was  a  Catholic  without  Catholicity,  he  was  also 
a  Branch  without  a  Trunk. 

His  venerable  friend,  if  he  might  construct  a  speech  for  one  who 
was  so  well  able  to  speak  for  himself,  might  be  supposed  to  address 
the  Roman  Church  as  follows : — "  I  admit  that  my  Church  is  not, 
and  cannot  be,  the  Church  Catholic.  I  admit,  further,  that  she  is 
not  a  Church  at  all,  except  in  a  political  or  national  sense.  But 
I  contend  that,  in  spite  of  her  defects,  she  is  a  branch  of  the 
Universal  Communion,  however  earnestly  you  may  repudiate  the 
connection;  and  I  insist  that  I  am  not  excluded  from  your  pale, 
because  I  do  not  recognise  your  right  to  exclude  me.  I  claim  to 
determine  that  point  for  myself.  I  choose  to  belong  to  you, 
whether  you  consent  or  not.  I  will  not  resign  my  communion 
with  Rome,  though  I  know  that  you  rank  me  with  the  aliens 
outside  ;  and  I  must  positively  refuse  to  enter  her  communion, 
though  you  affectionately  entreat  me  to  do  so.  In  a  word,  I  will 
belong  to  you,  in  spite  of  your  rejection ;  and  I  will  not  obey  you 
in  spite  of  your  invitation." 

This  was  the  way  in   which   the   branch  spoke   to  the  trunk 


64  THE   COMEDY   OF   CONVOCATION 

Well,  was  it  really  a  branch,  and  if  so,  on  what  part  of  the  trunk 
was  it  grafted?  At  what  point  did  the  vivifying  sap  flow  from 
the  one  to  the  other?  It  was  easy,  of  course,  to  understand  the 
metaphor  in  the  case  of  a  French,  a  Spanish,  or  an  Austrian 
clergyman,  who  believed  every  doctrine  of  the  Catholic  Church, 
and  was  in  filial  subjection  to  her  Head,  from  whom  alone  he 
professed  to  derive  his  mission  and  jurisdiction.  Such  men  were, 
doubtless,  in  a  very  real  sense,  "branches"  of  the  Eoman  trunk. 
But  an  Anglican,  by  whatever  fancy  names  he  might  seek  to 
disguise  himself,  was  simply  a  child  of  the  Eeformation,  without 
which  his  Church  would  never  have  come  into  existence;  and, 
moreover,  that  Church  began  its  career  by  informing  the  world, 
through  the  mouth  of  all  its  master-builders,  that  the  Catholic 
Church  was  the  Babylon  of  the  Apocalypse.  How  then,  once 
more,  could  he  be  a  branch  of  the  Roman  trunk  ? 

He  had  heard,  indeed,  of  a  well-known  clergyman,  lately  deceased, 
who  said  to  a  friend,  in  answer  to  the  inquiry  how  they  were  to 
establish  their  connection  with  the  Catholic  Church,  "  May  there  not 
be  underground  suckers  ?"  This  was  all  which  the  author  of  the 
"  Christian  Year  "  could  suggest  to  dissuade  a  brother  minister  from 
going  over  to  Borne !  But,  surely,  such  idle  words  could  hardly 
satisfy  a  man  who  believed  he  had  a  soul.  Branches  were  not 
connected  with  a  tree  by  invisible  and  imaginary  suckers,  but 
grew  bodily  out  of  its  substance.  And,  moreover,  they  were  always 
of  the  same  material.  He  would  ask  his  venerable  friend  if  ever 
he  saw  a  tree  with  one  branch  of  oak,  another  of  cypress,  and  a 
third  of  ebony  ?  Did  he  ever  see  thistles  growing  on  a  vine,  or 
olives  on  a  fig  tree  ?  Yet  even  such  a  vegetable  combination  would, 
in  his  judgment,  be  a  far  less  curious  lusus  natures  than  a  theo- 
logical reproduction  of  the  Siamese  twins,  in  the  shape  of  a  dis- 
ciple of  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles  locked  in  the  embrace  of  a  pupil 
of  Cardinal  Bellarmine. 

The  only  true  test  of  a  theory  was  the  result  to  which  it  led  in 
practice.  The  branch-theory  did  not  look  well  on  paper,  but 
perhaps  it  redeemed  itself  in  its  practical  evolution  ?  He  would 
suppose,  then,  that  the  Archdeacon,  resolving  to  try  his  theory, 
set  out  on  a  foreign  tour.  Did  he  leave  Dover  an  Anglican,  and 
disembark  at  Calais  a  Ptoman  Catholic  ?  If  so,  at  what  particular 
spot  in  the  Channel  did  he  drop  the  Anglican  Articles  and  take  up 


IN  THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH.  65 

the  Roman  Missal?     Was  it  marked  by  a  buoy?  or  was  the  trans- 
formation a  gradual  process,  like  the  changes  of  temperature  ?     On 
leaving  Dover  he  carried  with  him  only  two  sacraments,  which  had 
grown  into  seven  by  the  time  he  landed  at  Calais.     Supposing  the 
distance  to  be  twenty-five  miles,  did  he  take  up  a  new  sacrament, 
— he  was  going  to  say  at  every  fifth  milestone,  but  the  sea  knew 
not   such    measures   of   distance.     Were    there    fixed    points    at 
which  he   began  to   believe   that   Transubstantiation  was  a  holy 
mystery,  and  not  a  "  blasphemous  fable ;"  that  Confirmation  and 
Extreme  Unction  were   divine  sacraments,  and   not,  as  he  had 
believed  while  breakfasting  at  Dover,  a  mere  "corrupt  following 
of  the  Apostles?"     Did  he,  in  spite  of  the  injunction  with  which 
they  were  all  familiar,  "  not  to  speak  to  the  man  at  the  wheel,'*' 
anxiously  interrogate  that  individual  as  to  the  precise  longitude  in 
which  it  behoved  him  to  cast  away  some  Anglican  delusion,  and 
take  up  some  Catholic  truth?     At  what  point  of  the  voyage  did 
the  Pope's  supremacy  begin  to  dawn  upon  him  ?     And,  finally,  did 
the  process  of  transformation,  to  which  all  Branch-Christians  were 
inevitably  subject  when  they  went  to  foreign  lands,  depend  in  any 
degree  upon  the  weather  ?     Was  it  quicker  or  slower  in  a  heavy 
6ea?  or  did  sea-sickness  in  any  way  affect  its  development? 

But  he  would  now  suppose  that,  instead  of  visiting  France  or 
Belgium,  or  any  other  Catholic  land,  his  friend  should  allow  him- 
self the  recreation  of  a  voyage  to  the  Baltic,  and  disembark  on  the 
banks  of  the  Neva.     They  were  all  aware  that  the  "  Holy  Eastern 
Church"  was  just  now  spoken  of  with  a  comically  exaggerated  reve- 
rence by  a  certain  section  of  the  English  clergy,  whose  raptures  did 
not  seem  to  be  checked  by  the  discouraging  fact  that  the  "  Holy 
Anglican  Church"  was  an  institution  totally  ignored  by  Creek  and 
Muscovite  alike.     Mr.  Curzon  had  been  asked,  a  few  years  ago,  by 
the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  "  who  the  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury was  f"     The  head  of  the  Greek  Church  had  never  even  heard 
of  him !     Now,  their  friend,  the  Arch-deacon,  would  carry  with  him 
to  Russia  his  principle  of  branch-churches,  which,  by  hypothesis, 
would  make  him  everywhere  at  home;  and  he  would  be  as  much 
imbued  with  Russian  theology  on  arriving  at  St.  Petersburg,  as  he 
was  with  Roman  on  arriving  at  Calais.     He  would  now  consider 
the  "  Orthodox"  religion  at  least  as  good  as  the  "  Catholic,"  if  not 
a  great  deal  better.     The  Papal  supremacy,  equally  odious  to  hira 


66  THE   COMEDY   OF   CONVOCATION 

and  to  the  Ruasian,  would  become  once  more  a  "  usurpation,"  and 
the  Czar  would  henceforth  be  his  Pontiff,  not  the  Pope.  Imperial 
maxims  would  penetrate  his  mind ;  and  the  violent  destruction  oi 
Catholic  interests  in  Poland  and  in  Lithuania  would  claim  his  warm 
approval,  as  in  Calais  it  excited  his  horror  and  disgust.  The 
transformation  of  this  Branch-Christian  would  be  once  more  radical 
and  complete  !  He  changed  his  religion  with  as  much  facility  aa 
he  changed  his  coat.  The  fact  that  English,  Roman,  and  Russian 
creeds  were  so  distinct  as  to  involve  perpetual  and  deadly  schism, 
only  rendered  his  conversion  to  all  three  by  turns  a  greater  stretch 
of  Christian  charity.  If  they  did  not  know  how  to  agree  with  one 
another,  he  knew  how  to  agree  with  all  of  them;  so  that  the 
Archdeacon  appeared  to  have  adopted  this  new  theological  formula, 
that  "  the  impartial  distribution  of  mutual  anathemas  was  the 
truest  condition  of  mutual  communion." 

One  difficulty,  however,  would  await  him  at  St.  Petersburg,  from 
which  he  was  exempt  at  Calais.  It  was  true  that  neither  at  Calais 
nor  at  St.  Petersburg  would  he  meet  a  single  priest  wno  would 
regard  him  as  anything  but  a  heretic  and  a  schismatic.  In  Russia, 
as  in  France,  none  would  consent  to  join  him  in  the  simple  act  of 
worship,  in  spite  of  his  provisional  assumption  of  the  Russian 
Creed.  But,  then,  it  was  a  fact  well-known  in  Russia,  that  the 
Greek  Church  had  been  often  reconciled  to  Rome,  and  always  upon 
terms  imposed  upon  her  by  the  latter ;  and  had  often  admitted,  as 
at  the  Council  of  Florence,  that  the  Pope  was  the  Vicar  of  God.  So 
that  the  Archdeacon  would  have  changed  his  doctrine,  and  changed 
again,  only  to  find  at  last  that  the  truth  which  he  had  abhorred  at 
Dover,  and  confessed  at  Calais,  and  abhorred  once  more  in  Russia, 
in  order  to  enjoy  everywhere  the  privilege  of  being  a  "  Branch- 
Christian,"  was  just  as  well  appreciated  in  Russia  as  in  Rome,  was 
actually  enshrined  in  her  liturgies,  and  only  denied  by  the  former, 
at  the  present  day,  on  political  grounds,  because  it  presented  the 
most  formidable  obstacle  to  Slavonic  national  unity.  Was  it  worth 
while,  then,  to  maintain  a  theory  which  would  not  secure  for  him 
the  faintest  recognition  by  any  Church  throughout  the  world; 
which  required  its  advocate  to  show  even  less  respect  for  positive 
truth  than  the  Mormon  or  the  Kaffir ;  and  which  far  from  attract- 
ing the  sympathy  of  the  Greek  or  Roman  Churches,  which  it  waa 


IN   THE    ENGLISH   CHURCH.  67 

foolishly  designed  to  conciliate,  only  united  them  both  in  common 
and  undisguised  contempt? 

And  here  he  would  briefly  narrate  an  incident  which  occurred 
not  many  years  ago,  in  illustration  of  the  folly  of  the  branch- 
religion.  An  Anglican  clergyman  desired  to  receive  the  sacrament 
at  St.  Petersburg.  He  was  told,  among  other  things,  that  he  must 
first  anathematise  the  Thirty- Nine  Articles.  He  replied,  as  Arch- 
deacon Chasuble  might  do,  that  he  was  quite  prepared  to  do  so. 
On  this  his  Russian  friends,  who  thought  Branch-Christians  simply 
a  nuisance,  and  only  wanted  to  get  rid  of  him,  observed  that  more 
was  necessary,  and  that  he  must  bring  a  solemn  declaration  from 
all  the  Anglican  bishops,  that  they  also  anathematised  the  Articles. 
It  would  certainly  be  a  remarkable  day  on  which  the  collective 
Anglican  Episcopate  should  declare  their  own  Church  accursed, 
as  these  Russians  politely  proposed;  and  as  the  clergyman  in 
question  was  not  sanguine  that  he  could  persuade  them  to  do  so, 
he  gave  it  up,  and  went  to  Constantinople  to  be  admitted  into  the 
Greek  Church.  But  there  they  rudely  informed  him  that  he  must 
be  re-baptized,  to  which  he  strongly  objected.  Once  more  he 
travelled  to  St.  Petersburg,  where  they  told  him  the  ecclesiastics  at 
Constantinople  were  ignorant  boobies,  at  which  he  opened  his  eyes 
very  wide  indeed,  and  finished  by  becoming  a  Roman  Catholic ;  in 
which  condition  he  wished  him  all  possible  felicity. 

But  he  would  detain  the  House  no  longer;  and  as  the  Arch- 
deacon had  concluded  his  discourse  by  showing  how,  on  his- 
principles,  Dr.  Easy's  principles  should  be  answered,  he  would  beg 
permission  to  follow  his  example.  It  was  his  opinion,  then,  that  if 
the  Branch-idea  be  true,  there'  must  be  three  Gods,  and  not  one; 
and  each  of  them  on  such  deplorable  terms  with  the  other  two,,  that 
it  was  a  marvel  how  Olympus  could  contain  them  without  a  general 
celestial  catastrophe. 

DEAN  PRIMITIVE  must  really  protest  against  such  unbecom- 
ing levity. 

DR.  CANDOUR  could  assure  the  Dean  that  he  never  was  mora 
serious  in  his  life.  If  there  was  any  touch  of  levity  or  comedy 
in  the  discussion,  it  was  in  the  subject  and  not  in  his  treatment  of 


68  THE   COMEDY    OF   CONVOCATION 

it.  He  would  go  farther,  and  say  that  either  indignation  or  con- 
tempt must  be  provoked  in  every  honest  mind  by  the  modern 
theory  which  he  had  attempted  to  refute.  He  insisted  that  that 
theory  required  the  existence  of  three  distinct  and  hostile  gods, — an 
Anglican,  a  Greek,  and  a  Roman;  and  that  on  any  disputed  point 
of  doctrine  an  English  clergyman  would  only  have  to  say  which  of 
the  three  he  proposed  to  serve,  in  order  effectually  to  puzzle  the 
Privy  Council,  and  keep  himself  safe  from  the  imputation  of  heresy. 
He  was  brought,  therefore,  to  the  same  conclusion  as  his  venerable 
friend.  If  to  deny  the  infallibility  of  the  Church,  as  he  maintained, 
was  the  same  with  denying  the  existence  of  a  God, — because  God 
could  not  possibly  establish  a  fallible  Church, — it  was  equally 
certain  that  to  suppose  three  warring  and  wrangling  Churches,  all 
teaching  different  doctrines,  yet  all  protected  and  commissioned  by 
one  common  Founder,  and  regarded  by  him  with  equal  com- 
placency, was  to  admit  that  there  were  three  Gods ;  and  this  was 
the  same  with  saying  that  there  was  no  God  at  all.  And  thus,  by 
different  roads,  he  and  his  friend  the  Archdeacon  arrived  at  pre- 
cisely the  same  conclusion. 

THE  PROLOCUTOR  of  the  House  here  rose,  with  an  air  of 
dignity  becoming  his  official  character,  and  expressed  his  conviction 
that  the  general  feeling  of  the  House  was  that  the  debate  should  now 
close.  (Hear,  hear.)  That  debate  had  proved  a  variety  of  things, 
which  were  more  or  less  destructive  to  the  National  Church,  but 
nothing  perhaps  more  clearly  than  this,  that  the  public  was  right 
in  regarding  their  discussions  as  very  unprofitable  to  the  interests 
of  religion,  either  in  their  own  land  or  in  any  other.  He  did  not 
see  what  was  gained  by  showing  the  world  that  no  two  of  them 
were  of  the  same  mind,  and  that  Convocation  had  no  more  autho- 
rity to  lead  men  to  the  truth  than  the  Church  which  it  was  sup- 
posed to  represent.  He  thought,  indeed,  the  time  had  come  when 
Convocation  should  cease  to  meet  as  a  representative  body,  affect- 
ing to  deal  with  interests  which  it  had  no  power  to  promote,  and 
lu  serve  a  cause  which  it  was  only  able  to  compromise.  Its  deli- 
berations,— which  might  have  a  certain  value  if  they  pretended  to 
no  official  character, — were  now  regarded  by  everbody  as  a  sham, 
and  probably  their  own  convictions  were  in  harmony  with  that 
view.     He  proposed,  therefore,  that  this  should  be  the  last  official 


IN   THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH.  68 

meeting  of  Convocation, — (Loud  cheers,) — and  that  henceforth 
they  should  assemble  in  the  house  of  one  of  their  colleagues,  where 
they  could  converse  together  freely,  like  any  other  private  com- 
pany, without  the  risk  of  exciting  public  animadversion.  He  really 
thought  that  a  few  more  meetings  of  Convocation  would  destroy 
the  Church  of  England  altogether,  since  the  only  dogma  which  that 
body  could  be  said  to  have  defined  was  this,  that  "  Christianity, 
from  first  to  last,  was  entirely  a  matter  of  opinion;"  whereas,  in 
their  private  capacity,  they  could  discuss  every  point  of  Christian 
doctrine,  without  suggesting  the  idea  to  thoughtful  minds  that  the 
primary  object  of  the  Christian  revelation  was  to  make  it  impossible 
for  any  man  to  know  the  truth.  If  the  House  shared  his  opinion, 
it  only  remained  to  determine  what  should  be  the  place  of  their 
future  meeting.     (Applause.) 

DR.  EASY  was  delighted  to  be  able  to  offer  hospitality  to  his 
reverend  friends.  He  lived,  as  they  knew,  in  the  immediate  neigh- 
bourhood of  their  fine  old  historical  abbey,  and  his  apartments  were 
sufficiently  spacious  to  afford  a  convenient  place  of  meeting.  He 
proposed,  therefore,  on  the  understanding  that  Convocation  was 
now  happily  extinct,  that  they  should  meet  at  his  residence  on 
that  day  week,  when  they  could  either  resume  the  debate  that  had 
hitherto  occupied  them,  or  turn  their  attention  to  any  other  topie 
which  might  promise  greater  profit  or  amusement.  (Loud  cries 
of  "Agreed.") 

\ExeurJL  omnes. 


8CENE    II. 


DR.    EASY'S   DRAWING-ROOM. 


Dj..  Easy's  drawing-room  presented  an  animated  appearance. 
Friendly  greetings  were  exchanged,  and  decent  hilarity  pervaded 
the  assembly.  The  gravest  countenances  relaxed  from  conventional 
severity.  Archdeacons  smiled  as  if  in  anticipation  of  coming 
enjoyment,  and  even  Deans  responded  to  the  salutations  of  the 
inferior  clergy  with  unwonted  urbanity.  The  bright  mirrors,  well- 
selected  pictures,  and  far-reaching  sofas  which  adorned  Dr.  Easy's 
saloon,  and  bore  witness  at  once  to  the  amplitude  of  his  revenues 
and  the  refinement  of  his  taste,  were  evidently  felt  to  be  an 
improvement  on  the  decorous  gloom  of  the  Jerusalem  Chamber. 
Tables  of  marble  and  rosewood  were  covered  with  choice  engravings 
and  other  works  of  art.  Portraits  of  the  Misses  Easy  attracted  the 
attention  of  the  younger  clergy.  The  absence  of  reporters  imparted 
to  their  elder  brethren  a  welcome  sense  of  liberty.  Free,  but  not 
undignified,  postures  preluded  the  familiar  dialogue  in  which  each 
could  take  cheerful  part,  without  the  unpleasant  fear  of  newspaper 
criticism.  Convocation  had  become  a  social  or  family  reunion,  and 
was  evidently  satisfied  with  the  change.  Informal  discussion  pre- 
ceded the  coming  debate,  and  themes  which  never  fail  to  interest 
the  clerical  mind  occupied  the  company.  Dean  Pompous  disputed 
with  a  neighbour  the  exact  pecuniary  value  of  a  benefice  likely  to 


72  THE    COMEDY    OF    CONVOCATION 

be  shortly  vacant,  and  suggested  a  probable  successor  to  the  dying 
incumbent.  Dean  Primitive  conversed  with  Archdeacon  Chasuble 
on  the  recent  letter  of  the  Primate,  inviting  the  Bishops  "in  visible 
communion  with  the  Church  of  England"  to  a  Council  in  Septem- 
ber. Had  his  friend  noticed,  he  asked,  that  remarkable  announce- 
ment that  "such  Council  would  not  be  competent  to  make  declara- 
tions, or  lay  down  definitions  on  points  of  doctrine?"  His  friend 
had  certainly  noticed  it.  He  had  heard  of  Councils,  both  general 
and  local,  which  had  assembled  to  decide  on  points  of  doctrine,  but 
it  was  the  first  time  he  had  ever  heard  of  a  Council  summoned  with 
the  avowed  object  of  avoiding  all  such  questions.  In  such  cheer- 
ful talk  the  reverend  guests  continued  to  indulge,  till  their  number 
being  at  length  complete,  there  arose  suddenly,  amid  the  hum  of 
general  conversation,  a  loud  cry  of  "  Chair,  chair ! "  Then  the 
host,  leaning  against  a  chimney-piece,  bowed  to  his  friends,  and 
prayed  them  to  be  seated.  Silence  being  restored,  the  debate  com- 
menced as  follows  : — ■ 

DP.  EASY  rejoiced  that  his  reverend  friends  had  attended  in 
such  imposing  numbers.  In  compliance  with  their  invitation,  he 
had  selected  a  subject  to  be  submitted  to  their  notice.  Their  last 
debate,  as  they  seemed  generally  to  feel,  had  proved  to  themselves 
and  to  the  public  that  Authority  neither  did  nor  could  reside  in 
the  English  Church.  It  was  certain  that  no  individual  clergyman, 
nor  all  the  clergy  put  together,  could  decide  any  point  of  doctrine 
whatever;  so  that  the  day  seemed  close  at  hand, — if  it  had  not 
actually  arrived, — when  an  Anglican  would  be  at  liberty  either  to 
accept  or  reject  every  truth  contained  in  the  Christian  revelation. 
The  learned  Prolocutor  had  well  epitomised  all  the  points  of  their 
last  debate,  and  gracefully  justified  the  characteristic  decisions  of 
Privy  Council,  when  he  said,  or  at  least  implied,  that  the  practical 
result  of  all  Anglican  teaching,  as  of  all  Anglican  history,  might 
be  expressed  in  such  a  formula  as  this:  "Christianity,  from  first 
to  last,  is  simply  a  matter  of  opinion;"  or,  "The  primary  object 
of  the  Christian  Revelation  is  to  render  it  impossible  for  any  man 
to  know  the  truth  with  certainty." 

In  confirmation  of  this  view  of  their  position  as  members  of  the 
Established  Church,  he  was  happy  to  be  able  to  call  their  attention 
to  the  recent  declaration  of  one  of  her  highest  dignitaries.     Ho 


IN   THE   ENGLISH    CHURCH.  73 

regretted  that  he  was  not  present  with  them,  that  he  might  have 
enforced  in  person  the  very  striking  statements  which  he  was  about 
to  quote  from  a  published  volume  of  his  sermons,  with  which  he 
(Dr.  Easy)  had  only  become  acquainted  since  their  last  meeting. 
The  very  Rev.  Dr.  Elliot,  the  present  Dean  of  Bristol,  had  publicly 
asserted,  without  incurring  the  slightest  shadow  of  reproach,  these 
cwo  momentous  truths;  (1)  that  the  Church  of  England  is,  in  all 
respects,  a  purely  human  institution ;  and  (2)  that  her  members 
are  not  bound  in  conscience  to  believe  a  single  doctrine  taught  by 
her.     But  he  would  quote  his  exact  words : 

"  The  Church  of  England,"  said  the  Dean  of  Bristol,  "  is  created 
by  the  law,  upheld  by  the  law,  paid  by  the  law,  and  may  be 
changed  by  the  law,  just  as  any  other  institution  in  the  land" 

That  was  his  first  proposition,  and  here  was  the  second : 

"  I  cannot  desire  you  to  accept  either  what  I  affirm,  or  what  the 

Church  affirms,  as  undoubtedly  true,  or  the  only  true  interpretation 

of  the  mysteries  of  God." 

It  was  pleasant  to  see  the  conclusions  at  which  they  had  arrived 
in  a  former  debate  embraced  with  so  much  energy  of  conviction  by 
one  of  the  highest  functionaries  of  their  National  Church.  And 
now,  accepting  these  conclusions  as  indisputable,  and  harmonising 
perfectly  with  the  life  and  history  of  that  Church,  he  was  led  to 
ask;  "  If  the  Authority  of  the  English  Church  be  purely  human,  can 
her  Orders  be  divine?"  This  was  the  question  he  should  propose 
for  their  consideration,  and  without  another  word  of  preface,  he 
would  submit  the  following  motion  to  their  vote  : — "That  this  meet- 
ing, being  unanimous  on  the  point  that  Authority  can  have  no  exist- 
ence in  the  Church  of  England,  desires  to  pass  to  the  discussion  of 
the  cognate  question,  'Are  English  Orders  human  or  divine?'" 

(The  motion  being  carried  by  show  of  hands,  Dr.  Easy  invited 
the  Professor  of  History  to  open  the  debate,  on  the  ground  that  no 
one  was  more  qualified  to  handle  the  subject,  and  to  discriminate 
with  accuracy  the  delicate  considerations  connected  with  it.) 

THE  PROFESSOR  OF  HISTORY  rose  from  an  ottoman,  and 
then,  in  compliance  with  a  general  request,  stood  upon  it,  for  the 
convenience  of  his  hearers.    He  had  naturally,  he  said,  given  some 


74  THE   COMEDY   OF   CONVOCATION 

attention  to  a  subject  on  which  it  had  been  his  duty  to  lecture  to 
the  students  of  one  of  the  Universities.  In  earlier  years,  before 
he  accepted  the  responsibility  of  teaching  others,  he  had  been 
accustomed  to  maintain  the  validity  of  English  Orders  to  his  own 
satisfaction  by  some  such  process  as  the  following:  "There  can  be 
no  orders  without  Apostolic  Succession,  therefore  it  follows  that 
we  must  possess  it."  He  need  hardly  observe  that  his  maturer 
reason  rejected  this  crude  argumentation, — (laughter) — but  it 
pained  him  to  be  obliged  to  add,  that  too  many  of  the  clergy  at 
the  present  day  employed  logical  methods  quite  as  feeble  and  in- 
conclusive as  that  which  he  had  renounced.  Their  reasoning  on 
this  important  subject,  involving  intricate  points  of  history  as  well 
as  moral  difficulties  of  a  very  serious  kind,  was  often  trivial  and 
childish,  quite  unworthy  of  the  gravity  of  the  subject,  and  only 
tending  to  throw  discredit  upon  it.  He  should  be  glad  if  he  could 
induce  them  to  adopt  a  more  manly  tone,  and  perhaps  he  could 
not  better  illustrate  his  meaning  than  by  suggesting  the  following 
cautions,  by  way  of  example. 

Thus,  with  respect  to  the  Ordinal  of  Edward  VI.,  which  had  been 
recently  discussed  in  certain  public  journals,  he  could  not  seriously 
advise  his  reverend  friends  to  argue  that,  because  that  form  was 
new,  it  was  therefore  necessarily  Catholic.  Nor,  because  it  did 
not  contain  one  word  of  Episcopal  consecration,  must  it  therefore 
have  been  efficient  to  the  making  of  a  bishop.  Nor,  because  it 
was  annulled  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Mary,  must  it  therefore  have 
been  legal  in  that  of  Elizabeth.  Nor,  because  Queen  Elizabeth, 
labouring  under  the  temporary  impression  that  she  was  Almighty 
God,  "dispensed  with  all  causes  and  doubts  of  any  imperfection 
of  the  same,"  should  he  therefore  conclude  that  that  dispensation 
was  straightway  ratified  in  Heaven.  Nor,  once  more,  because 
Charles  II.,  one  hundred  and  twelve  years  after  the  new  form  be- 
gan to  be  used,  pronounced  it  invalid  by  substituting  another  in 
its  place,  should  he  therefore  attribute  to  that  royal  but  light- 
minded  pontiff,  the  omnipotence  which  he  claimed  in  his  turn,  nor 
admit  his  power  to  unite  the  links  of  a  succession  which  his  own 
act  declared  to  have  been  hopelessly  broken. 

In  the  same  way,  if  he  were  discussing  that  vexata  qucestio,  the 
consecration  of  Archbishop  Parker,  he  would  not  press  the  argument 
too  closely,  that,  because  the  register  of  his  consecration  was  not 


IN  THE  ENGLISH  CHUECH.  75 

discovered  for  half  a  century,  the  fact  was  clearly  providential, 
and  involved  a  prima  facie  probability  that  Parker  was  a  true 
bishop.  Nor,  again,  because  the  register  of  Barlow's  consecration, 
who  was  said  to  have  consecrated  Parker,  was  never  discovered  at 
all,  should  he  therefore  insist  that  his  consecration  attained  to  a 
point  of  demonstration  which  was  akin  to  absolute  certainty. 

In  like  manner,  when  he  considered  the  historical  fact,  that  most 
of  the  Reformers,  especially  those  who  had  the  principal  influence  in 
determining  the  tone  of  their  formularies,  openly  despised  the  rite 
of  Ordination,  he  could  not  counsel  his  brethren  to  attribute  to 
them  a  delicate  fastidiousness  in  their  mode  of  administering  it, 
which  they  would  certainly  have  disowned  with  scorn.  Thus,  be- 
cause Barlow  was  known  to  have  regarded  Ordination  as  a  trifling 
and  impertinent  thing,  declaring  that  "any  layman  whom  the 
king  might  choose  to  be  a  bishop,  would  be  as  good  a  bishop  as 
himself,  or  the  best  in  England ;"  he  should  not  from  that  fact 
infer  that  Barlow  was  likely  to  be  painfully  scrupulous  in  his  own 
mode  of  consecrating  a  bishop,  or  that  his  estimate  of  the  imposition 
of  hands  was  quite  identical  with  that  of  Archdeacon  Chasuble. 
Nor,  again,  because  Coverdale  and  Scorey,  the  co-ordainers  of 
Parker,  were  lively  and  recreative  monks,  who,  along  with  Barlow, 
had  broken  into  shivers  their  voluntary  vows  of  chastity,  in  order  to 
embrace  delights  from  which  they  had  bound  their  souls  to  abstain, 
was  he  therefore  driven  imperiously  to  the  conviction,  that  they 
must  have  been  inflexible  on  the  point  of  their  Orders,  to  com- 
pensate for  the  deficiency  on  the  score  of  their  morality.  Nor,  once 
more,  because  Scorey  and  Barlow  had  been  Catholics  and  Protest- 
ants under  Henry,  Catholics  again  under  Mary,  and  Protestants 
once  more  under  Elizabeth ;  should  he  therefore  attribute  to  either 
of  those  versatile  prelates  a  fanatical  attachment  to  religion  in 
general,  or  to  the  exact  administration  of  holy  Orders  in  particular. 

All  which  was  known  of  the  other  Reformers  furnished  a  motive 
for  exercising  similar  caution  with  respect  to  their  opinions  of  the 
Apostolic  Succession.  Because  Cranmer  contended  before  all  Eng- 
land that  "the  King's  election  alone,  without  ordination,  sufficed  to 
make  a  priest  or  a  bishop;"  or  because  thirteen  other  bishops  sub- 
scribed the/or mal  declaration  that  "  bishops  and  priests  are  not  two 
things,  but  one  office  in  the  beginning  of  Christ's  religion;"  or  be- 
cause Whit  taker  bluntly  requested  his  Roman  Catholic  assailants 


76  THE   COMEDY    OF   CONVOCATION 

to  "keep  their  Orders  to  themselves;"  or  because  Fulke,  with  even 
greater  emphasis,  described  those  Orders,  as  " stinking,  greasy,  and 
anti- Christian;"  or  because  Jewel  declined  three  times  to  answer 
Harding's  taunting  question,  "Who  made  you  a  bishop?"  or, 
finally,  because  Parker,  Jewel,  and  Home  combined  together  in 
their  version  of*  the  Bible  to  translate  yscpovouia  "ordination  by 
election,"  which  translation  remained  till  the  time  of  James  I. :  he 
could  not,  from  all  such  facts,  conclude  that  integrity  of  Holy 
Order  was  the  grand  passion  of  the  first  fathers  of  the  English 
Church,  or,  indeed,  that  they  regarded  it  with  any  less  aversion 
than  purgatory  or  the  confession  of  their  sins. 

It  had  been  argued,  by  their  High-Church  brethren,  in  order 
to  take  the  sting  out  of  such  facts,  that  the  early  Anglican  bishops 
were  in  mortal  fear  of  the  brutal  Tudor  sovereigns,  and  would 
have  been  in  their  own  views,  and  have  made  the  Anglican  formu- 
laries, much  more  Catholic,  if  they  had  been  free  to  follow  their 
private  aspirations.  But  such  a  trifling  allegation  was  equally  at 
variance  with  reason  and  with  history.  If  the  English  bishops 
sacrificed  their  own  convictions  of  truth  from  cowardice, — as  this 
theory  wantonly  assumed, — they  were  pitiful  traitors ;  and  the 
Church,  which  such  men  founded,  had  very  little  claim  to  their 
respect.  But,  in  fact,  it  was  the  strong  will  of  the  Tudor  sover- 
eigns which  alone  prevented  the  bishops  from  being  still  more 
Protestant  than  they  actually  were.  But  for  that  fierce  temper 
which  brooked  no  opposition,  it  was  impossible  to  doubt  that  the 
Church  of  England  would  have  been  framed  in  closer  accordance 
with  a  Genevan  model;  and  if  this  had  not  come  to  pass,  it  was 
certainly  not  to  the  bishops  that  their  thanks  were  due.  The  Stu- 
arts also  so  far  resembled  the  Tudors  that,  owing  to  their  notions 
of  kingly  prerogative,  they  were  willing  to  retain  certain  Catholic 
traditions  which  the  English  clergy  and  people  valued  much  lose 
than  their  rulers.  They  owed  to  kings,  and  not  to  bishops,  what- 
ever superficial  distinctions  separated  them  from  the  no:i-Episco- 
oal  Protestant  communities. 

It  would  be  noticed  that  in  the  observations  which  he  had  made 
thus  far,  he  had  expressed  no  personal  opinion  as  to  the  validity  of 
English  Orders.  He  had  merely  suggested  prudence  and  caution 
in  dealing  with  arguments  which,  however  indecisive  they  might 
appear,  when  taken  one  by  one,  possessed  a  certain  cumulativo 


IN   THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH.  77 

force  which  was  not  to  be  despised.  They  might  have  weight,  but 
they  were  not  conclusive,  either  one  way  or  the  other.  In  like 
manner,  the  fact  that  Roman  Catholics  treated  their  Orders  as 
purely  human,  however  serious  it  might  be  in  conjunction  with 
other  facts  which  he  would  notice  presently,  could  hardly  by  itself 
be  deemed  decisive  on  the  point.  Roman  Catholics  were  their 
natural  enemies,  and  might  be  mistaken  as  to  matters  of  fact,  or 
unduly  biassed  in  their  appreciation  of  them. 

DEAN  PRIMITIVE,  who  appeared  to  listen  to  the  Professor 
with  extreme  dissatisfaction,  wished  to  inquire,  if  he  might  be 
allowed  to  interrupt  the  speaker,  whether  the  hostile  animus  of  the 
Roman  Church  towards  the  Church  of  England  was  not  distinctly 
proved  by  the  fact  that  she  made  no  difficulty  in  recognising  the 
Orders  of  the  modern  Russia,  nor  even  of  the  Jacobite,  Coptic, 
and  other  oriental  communities  ? 

THE  PROFESSOR  interpreted  that  fact  in  exactly  the  opposite 
sense.  The  Orders  of  the  communities  referred  to  by  the  Dean  had 
never  been  disputed,  while  their  own  had  never  been  admitted,  by 
any  religious  body  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  But  he  preferred  to 
examine  the  question  in  connection  with  general  principles,  rather 
than  with  reference  to  particular  and  isolated  facts. 

Now,  he  found  it  laid  down  by  certain  writers,  with  an  emphasis 
which  showed  the  importance  they  attributed  to  it,  that  wherever 
the  mystical  doctrines  of  the  Sacrifice  of  the  Altar  and  the  Real 
Presence,  of  which  hardly  anything  had  ever  been  heard  in  their 
own  Church  until  the  last  few  years,  had  been  retained  in  any 
Christian  community,  there,  whatever  might  have  been  their  destiny 
in  other  respects,  no  question  as  to  the  integrity  of  their  Orders  had 
ever  arisen.  It  was  only,  they  urged,  in  communions  like  the 
English,  where  those  doctrines  had  been  rejected  as  "  fables"  and 
"  deceits,"  and  where,  in  practice,  they  had  been  quite  put  out  of 
sight  for  centuries,  that  the  proofs  of  what  was  called  the  Apostolic 
Succession  were  not  found.  His  friends  would  admit  that,  at  least 
from  a  Catholic  point  of  view,  which  some  of  their  colleagues  were 
fond  of  adopting,  this  was  a  fact  of  tremendous  gravity.  He  was 
not  surprised  that  to  many  minds  it  seemed  absolutely  decisive  of 
the  whole  question.     They  argued,  with  great  force  on  their  own 


78  THE   COMEDY   OF   CONVOCATION 

principles,  that  such  a  Church  as  the  English,  which  had  pro- 
nounced by  the  mouth  of  its  founders,  by  the  testimony  of  its  for- 
mularies, and  by  the  practice  of  three  centuries,  that  the  doctrines 
in  question  were  false,  could  not  possibly  share  the  Succession 
with  communions  which  had  always  revered  them  as  true.  They 
insisted,  and  he  thought  with  reason,  that  the  Christian  priest- 
hood and  the  mysteries  of  the  altar  were  correlatives,  and  that  they 
must  stand  or  fall  together.  This  was  no  special  doctrine  of  tho 
Roman  Church.  It  was  held  by  East  and  West  alike,  that  the 
peculiar  doctrinal  statements,  and  still  more  the  uniform  practice 
of  the  English  Church,  were  absolutely  inconsistent  with  the  pos- 
sibility of  sacerdotal  powers;  and  the  same  objectors  observed  that, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  notably  confirming  this  view,  the  English  was 
the  solitary  Episcopal  communion  in  which  the  proofs  of  the 
succession  were  not  to  be  had,  or  had  always  been  rejected  as 
insufficient. 

But  they  said  a  great  deal  more  than  this.  Their  High-Church 
friends, — having  acquired  by  study  an  intellectual  conviction  of  the 
truth  of  certain  Catholic  doctrines,  utterly  repudiated  in  practice 
by  their  co-religionists, — were  anxious  to  prove  that  such  doc- 
trines were  admitted,  or  at  least  not  rejected,  by  the  National 
Church.  They  claimed  to  be  priests,  with  all  the  powers  which 
had  ever  been  supposed  to  accompany  the  sacerdotal  office. 
To  this  claim  their  adversaries  replied,  that  supposing  for  the 
sake  of  argument,  they  had  these  powers,  then  was  the  history 
of  their  community  one  long  unbroken  calendar  of  crime  and 
sacrilege,  as  well  as  of  lying  teaching  against  the  doctrines  of  the 
Catholic  Church.  The  very  first  act,  they  observed,  of  the  Re- 
formed Church  of  England  was  to  suspend,  if  not  to  abolish,  the 
daily  sacrifice,  and  to  substitute  in  its  place  the  occasional  celebra- 
tion of  a  rite  which  had  nothing  in  common  with  it  but  the  use  of 
bread  and  wine.  It  was  noticed  with  regret  by  some  of  the  early 
Anglican  bishops,  that  in  many  Churches  communion  was  hardly 
given  "  once  in  three,  months, ,"  so  utterly  had  all  notion  of  the  Chris- 
tian Sacrifice  disappeared !  What  they  then  lamented  had  since 
become,  until  the  last  few  years,  the  almost  universal  rule  in  every 
part  of  England.  If,  therefore,  as  the  Ritualists  maintained,  the 
daily  sacrifice  was  the  essential  rite  of  the  Christian  religion,  it  was 
undeniable  that  their  own  Church  was  an  apostate  community,  since 


IN   THE    ENGLISH   CHURCH.  79 

she  had  suffered  that  rite  to  lapse,  without  an  effort  to  restore  it, 
during  three  centuries.  And  in  this  course  she  did  but  follow  the 
teaching  of  her  founders.  The  greatest  English  prelates,  including 
Ridley,  ordered  every  Catholic  altar  to  be  pulled  down  and  utterly 
defaced ;  some  of  them  commanding  that  the  very  altar-stones 
should  be  placed  at  the  entrance  to  the  churches,  so  that  all  who 
entered  should  be  forced  to  tread  upon  them.*    The  altar  was  treated 

*Here  a  Reverend  Divine  handed  to  his  neighbour  the  following  extracts,  which 
he  appeared  to  carry  about  his  person  as  charms  or  relics,  with  this  emphatic  observa- 
tion :  "  See  how  the  Court  of  Arches  and  the  Privy  Council  have  caught  the  spirit  of 
our  admirable  Reformers,  the  sainted  founders  of  the  Anglican  Church  !  " 

CRANMER.  "The  Papists  teach  that  Christ  is  in  the  bread  and  wine  ;  but  we  say 
(according  to  the  truth)  that  He  is  in  them  that  worthily  eat  and  drink  the  bread  and 
wine." — Answer  to  Gardner,  3rd  Book,  p.  52.  Again  ;  "Presence  by  faith  only  meaneth 
no  real,  material,  and  corporal  presence.  For  by  faith  is  Christ  present  in  baptism, — 
and  the  holy  fathers  did  eat  His  flesh  and  driuk  His  blood  before  he  was  born." — 
Against  Transubstantiation,  2nd  Book,  p.  296. 

RIDLEY,  in  giving  a  reason  for  taking  down  and  removing  the  Catholic  altars, 
said  :  "  The  use  of  an  altar  is  to  make  sacrifice  upon  it ;  the  use  of  a  table,"  which  he 
ordered  to  be  everywhere  substituted,  "  is  to  serve  for  men  to  eat  upon." — Injunction, 
p.  322.  "It  is  not  read  that  any  of  the  Apostles  or  the  Primitive  Church  did  ever 
U3e  any  altar  in  ministration  of  the  holy  communion."  p.  323. 

LATIMER  :  "  Minister  is  a  more  fit  name  than  priest,  for  the  name  of  a  priest  im- 
porteth  a  sacrifice." — Dispxitation  at  Oxford,  p.  26-1.  Again,  "Christ  gave  not  His 
body  to  be  received  with  the  mouth ;  .  .  .  He  gave  the  sacrament  to  the  mouth,  Hi* 
body  to  the  mind,"  p.  267.  "I  could  never  find,"  he  adds,  with  bitter  mockery  of  the 
Real  Presence,  "  in  the  sacrament  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  (which  the  Papists 
call  the  sacrament  of  the  altar,)  neither  flesh,  blood,  nor  bones." 

BECON,  Craumer's  favourite  chaplain,  knowing  the  whole  mind  of  the  Anglican 
Reformers,  said  :  "  The  Papists  have  brought  in  their  bloody  and  butcherly  altars."— 
The  Supplication,  p.  229.  He  reproaches  God  for  suffering  them  to  say  "their  idola- 
trous and  devilish  masses."  He  reviles  "Antichrist's  (the  Pope's)  blasphemous 
masses,  his  idolatrous  altars,  his  earish  confession,"  &c.  "  The  sacraments  of  the  new 
law,"  he  adds,  "do  not  confer  and  give  grace." — Articles  of  Christian  Religion,  16th 
Article,  p.  466. 

JEWEL :  "The  body  of  Christ  is  to  be  eaten  by  faith  only,  and  none  otherwise." — 
Answer  to  Harding,  p.  449. 

HOOPER  :  "Baptism  sanctifieth  no  man." — A  Declaration  of  Christ  and  His  Offict, 
p.  74.  "The  Jews  had  sacraments  as  well  as  we,  and  yet  never  brawled  about  them 
as  we  do."  p.  211.     "There  should,  among  Christians,  be  no  altars." 

GRIND AL  ordered  all  altars  to  be  utterly  removed,  and,  in  place  of  the  rood,  to 
put  up  "  some  convenient  crest." — Articles  for  the  Province  of  Canterbury,  p.  158. 

Such  was  the  theology  of  the  founders  of  the  Anglican  Church,  faithfully  interpreted 
by  the  decisions  of  the  Privy  Council. 


80  THE  COMEDY  OF  CONVOCATION 

in  England,  under  her  Reformers,  as  the  Cross  was  in  Japan.  And 
why  ?  Evidently,  because  the  eminent  and  sagacious  men  to  whom 
they  owed  their  present  religious  status  knew  perfectly  well  that, 
if  they  could  get  rid  of  the  altar,  they  should  have  no  difficulty  in 
abolishing  the  sacrifice.  The  event  proved  that  they  were  right. 
They  did  abolish  it,  and  every  idea  connected  with  it.  And,  on 
this  account,  he  thought  that  Puseyites  should  earnestly  hope  that 
their  Orders  could  not  be  the  same  with  those  of  Rome.  They 
should  prefer  to  think  themselves  deluded,  rather  than  attribute 
hideous  crimes  to  the  great  majority  of  those  who  ministered  in 
their  communion.  For,  considering  the  manner  in  which  the 
Lord's  Supper  had  notoriously  been  administered  for  centuries, 
even  in  their  cathedrals,  and  much  more  in  parish  churches, 
almost  every  celebration  in  the  Church  of  England,  from  the  time 
of  Queen  Elizabeth  to  their  own,  had  been  simply,  supposing  the 
Catholic  doctrine  to  be  true,  an  appalling  outrage  on  the  Person  of 
the  Son  of  God.  Let  them  call  to  mind  the  details,  often  abso- 
lutely grotesque,  of  such  celebrations  in  their  English  communion, 
and  they  would  recoil  with  horror  from  the  results  of  their  own 
theory,  which  implied  a  long  series  of  sacrileges  so  utterly 
monstrous  and  incredible,  that  the  mind  refused  to  contemplate 
them. 

His  friend,  Dean  Primitive,  suggested  that  the  Church  of  Rome 
had  some  sinister  motive  in  repudiating  Anglican  orders.  Yet 
here  was  a  motive,  quite  independent  of  all  historical  difficulties, 
which  was  surely  sufficient  to  the  Catholic  mind  !  The  Church  of 
Rome  had  never  been  in  the  habit  of  denying  true  Orders  where 
they  really  existed.  There  were  many  Christian  bodies  in  their 
own  clay,  as  in  past  ages,  vehemently  hostile  to  the  Roman  Church, 
but  whose  Orders  she  never  dreamed  of  disputing.  The  Arians  had 
true  Orders,  so  had  the  Donatists,  the  Nestorians,  and  a  multitude 
of  other  sects ;  but  it  was  worthy  to  be  carefully  noted  by  theii 
High-Church  friends,  that  in  all  their  combats  with  the  Latin 
Church,  they  never  once  pleaded  them !  There  was  literally  no 
example  in  ecclesiastical  history,  previous  to  the  formation  of  the 
English  Church,  of  any  controversy  on  the  subject  of  Orders. 
Questions  of  doctrine  only,  up  to  the  sixteenth  century,  had  ever 
been  debated  between  the  rival  Churches.  It  was  reserved  for 
English  Protestant  theologians  to  give  a  singular  and  suspicious 


IN   THE    ENGLISH    CHURCH.  81 

prominence  to  this  topic  of  Orders.  Their  adversaries  >vould  pro- 
bably say,  that  the  explanation  of  this  curious  fact  was  easy  to 
find.  They  would  see  in  it  only  a  fresh  proof  that  the  Reformation, 
having  destroyed  all  positive  truth,  by  proclaiming  the  right  of 
every  individual  to  determine  truth  for  himself,  had  made  all 
controversies  about  doctrine  utterly  illogical  and  unmeaning,  and 
had  left  nothing  to  dispute  about,  to  those  who  cared  to  dispute 
at  all,  but  the  question  of  Protestant  Orders. 

He  had  already  observed,  and  would  again  affirm,  in  a  spirit  of 
fairness  to  the  Eoman  Church,  which  would  deem  herself  convicted 
of  sacrilege  if  she  repeated  knowingly  the  ordination  of  a  true 
priest,  that  she  was  not  alone  in  rejecting  English  Orders,  nor  in 
regarding  them  as  a  purely  civil  privilege,  conferred  under  the 
sanction  of  English  law.  They  were  equally  rejected,  when  pre- 
tending to  any  higher  character  than  this,  by  every  other  Christian 
community  in  the  world.  Even  the  obscure  little  Syrian  body  in 
"Western  India,  when  solicited  by  the  Bishop  of  Calcutta  to  frater- 
nise with  Anglicans,  scornfully  derided  them.  How  was  it  possible, 
he  would  ask,  to  resent  or  marvel  at  such  judgments,  when  a 
majority  of  their  own  clergy,  at  all  epochs  had  agreed  with  the  pre- 
sent Dean  of  Bristol,  that  the  question  was  too  unreal  and  fantastic 
to  be  treated  with  a  grave  deliberation  ?  "  The  25th  Article,"  as 
the  Dean  truly  observed,  "  denies  that  Orders  are  a  Sacrament .... 
In  contradiction  to  Home,  it  clearly  repudiated  it  as  a  fiction  alto- 
gether, that  God  had  annexed  peculiar  grace  and  authority  to  im- 
position of  hands  successively  from  the  apostles,  or  to  any  other 
arbitrary  form  of  ordination  whatever." 

It  was  evident,  then,  as  every  intelligent  person  would  admit,  thai 
the  validity  of  English  Orders  was  not,  as  Ritualists  were  pleased 
to  maintain,  a  solemn  controversy  between  the  English  aud  the 
Roman  Churches.  It  was,  to  speak  with  truth  and  candour,  a  dis- 
pute in  which  a  small  section  of  their  own  community  was  on  one 
side,  and  the  whole  of  Christendom  on  the  other.  Let  his  younger 
friends  remember,  that  when  they  innocently  supposed  they  were 
bravely  pleading  their  Orders  against  the  cruel  Church  of  Ptome, 
(which  would  anathematise  them  quite  as  heartily  if  their  Orders 
were  perfectly  indisputable,)  they  were,  in  fact,  engaged  in  the 
much  more  difficult  task  of  defending  them  against  the  orbis  ter- 
varum,  with  no  sympathy  from  any  Christian  alive  or  dead,,  not 


82  THE   COMEDY   OF   CONVOCATION 

even  from  the  few  Protestant  communities  which  were  in  precisely 
the  same  dilemma  as  themselves. 

DEAN  PRIMITIVE,  who  rose  with  an  air  of  radiant  triumph, 
exclaimed,  that  the  Professor  was  evidently  going  a  great  deal  too 
far,  since  several  distinguished  Romanists  had  candidly  admitted 
the  validity  of  Anglican  Orders.  ("Hear,  hear,"  from  some  of  the 
younger  clergy.) 

THE  PROFESSOR  had  carefully  tested  the  value  of  all  the 
witnesses  referred  to,  and  was  afraid  they  would  not  afford  much 
consolation  to  the  Dean.  There  was  Courayer,  who  wanted  to  vex 
the  community  from  which  he  was  already  falling  away,  and  who 
at  last  died  an  infidel.  His  friend  was  welcome  to  his  testimony. 
There  was  Bossuet,  who  certainly  said  of  the  validity  of  English 
Orders,  "  cela  depend  des  fails,"  as  the  Pope  himself  would  be  the 
first  to  admit;  but  when  the  Abbe  Le  Grand  asked  him  whether 
he  might  without  offence  style  Burnet  "  Bishop  of  Salisbury,"  tersely 
replied,  "  JSfous  ne  connaisson-s  pas  cet  episcopat  Id."  This  was  very 
flattering  to   English  Orders.     Dr.  Lingard  also  had   been   cited 

DO  O 

as  admitting,  with  more  or  less  hesitation,  the  purely  historical 
side  of  the  question  of  Parker's  consecration.  But  such  half- 
admissions,  on  the  part  of  a  few  individuals,  proved  nothing 
whatever,  and  could  not  possibly  outweigh  the  consensus  of 
all  the  Christian  churches,  and  their  actual  conduct  towards 
all  orders  of  the  English  clergy.  He  knew  that  some  of  his 
friends  professed  to  see  the  hand  of  Providence  in  the  fact,  that 
the  Council  of  Trent  had  not  expressly  condemned  their  Orders, 
They  were  perhaps  not  aware  that  the  Council  was  within  an 
inch  of  doing  so,  and  was  only  restrained  by  a  most  urgent  appeal 
from  the  Spanish  ambassador,  who  represented  that  the  condition 
of  English  Catholics  was  already  nearly  intolerable,  and  that  the 
superfluous  declaration  would  only  irritate  their  oppressors,  and 
bring  fresh  misery  upon  them.  This  argument  wisely  prevailed.  But 
there  was  to  be  a  new  Council  next  year,  and,  from  information  which 
had  reached  him,  he  had  not  a  shadow  of  doubt  that  it  would  not 
only  decide  that  point,  but  a  good  many  others  which  his  High- 
Church  friends  were  extremely  anxious  to  keep  open.  There  was 
evidently  sorrow  and  trouble  in  store  for  them,  and  their  position 
would  soon  be  more  untenable  than  ever. 


IN  THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH.  83 

He  had  detained  the  company  too  long,  but  would  ask  permission, 
in  conclusion,  to  express  his  own  belief  that  the  historical  aspect  of 
the  question  of  their  Orders,  whatever  difficulties  might  belong  to 
it,  and  though  it  was  absolutely  certain  that  it  could  never  be 
decided  now  in  their  favour,  was  of  comparatively  little  importance. 
Even  if  Parker's  ordination  could  be  proved,  and  Edward's  Ordinal 
cleared  of  every  doubt,  and  a  multitude  of  other  questions  con- 
nected with  the  subject  lose  their  gravity,  no  progress  would  have 
been  made  towards  establishing  the  claims  of  the  present  generation 
of  bishops  and  clergy.  Their  case  was  still  worse  than  that  of 
Elizabeth's  much  afflicted  spiritual  pastors.  The  extreme  uncer- 
tainty of  Baptism  during  the  whole  of  the  Puritan  period,  to  speak 
only  of  that  epoch;  nay,  the  positive  contempt  in  which  that 
sacrament  was  held  by  whole  generations  of  English  Protestant 
divines,  and  the  utter  indifference  with  which  it  was  administered; 
the  want  of  intention  in  hundreds  of  consecrating  bishops  to  confer 
sacerdotal  powers,  and  in  thousands  of  the  clergy  to  accept  them ; 
the  alleged  fact  that  at  least  one  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  was 
known  to  have  died  unbaptized,  and  the  extreme  probability  that 
many  others  had  been  in  the  same  case ;  lastly,  the  outrageous  in- 
congruity of  pretending  to  make  a  Catholic  bishop,  as  the  Ritualists 
spoke,  out  of  a  man  who  rejected  all  Catholic  doctrine,  and  spent 
his  whole  life  in  reviling  it;  these  were  graver  subjects  of  reflec- 
tion to  those  who  affected  to  derive  English  Orders  from  the 
Roman  fount,  than  any  merely  historical  difficulties.  And  when 
the  two  were  combined,  they  certainly  sufficed  to  justify  both 
the  Latin  and  Greek  communities  in  sternly  rejecting,  as  a  fable 
and  a  pretence,  the  claim  of  a  few  Anglican  ministers  to  be  true 
priests. 

It  was  a  wholesome  maxim  in  all  controversy  to  be  as  fair  to 
you*  adversary  as  the  infirmities  of  human  nature  would  permit. 
It  would  not  contribute  to  a  mutual  understanding  quietly  to 
ignore  all  his  strong  points.  In  this  case  of  English  Orders  they 
were  both  numerous  and  formidable.  They  had  first  to  prove  that 
Parker  was  really  consecrated;  then  to  consider  whether  Barlow 
had  either  the  will  or  the  power  to  consecrate  him.  Next,  to 
account  for  the  fact  that  all  England  believed  the  whole  thing 
was  a  sham,  which  Elizabeth's  characteristic  decree  frankly  con- 
fessed, by  trying  to  repair  it;  and  that  the  bishops  were  of  the 


84  THE   COMEDY   OF   CONVOCATION 

same  opinion,  since  they  evidently  felt  that,  if  the  Queen  could  do 
nothing  for  them,  their  case  was  hopeless.  Then  they  must  deal 
with  the  fact,  that  all  the  Reformers,  and  their  immediate  successors, 
were  not  only  ill-affected  towards  the  Apostolic  Succession,  but  did 
every  thing  they  could  to  discredit  it;  clearly  proving  that  they 
neither  attached  any  importance  to  it,  nor  imagined  that  they 
themselves  possessed  it.  They  must  reconcile  their  deep  hatred 
of  the  doctrine  of  sacrifice  with  their  ordination  of  a  priesthood, 
whose  chief  function  it  was  to  offer  sacrifice.  They  must  explain 
also  why,  if  Edward's  Ordinal  were  valid,  Anglicans  need  have  been 
so  anxious  to  change  it,  a  hundred  years  after  it  had  become  too 
late  to  do  so  with  any  possible  result.  They  must  refute,  when 
they  had  accomplished  these  preliminary  difficulties,  the  really 
irresistible  reasons  for  believing  that  a  vast  number  of  English 
bishops  and  clergy  must  have  lived  and  died  unbaptized,  and  were 
therefore  perfectly  incapable  either  of  receiving  or  giving  ordination, 
or  any  other  Christian  rite.  And  when  they  had  arranged  all 
these  points  to  their  own  satisfaction,  they  would  have  to  consider, 
finally,  what  object  Providence  could  have  in  view  in  creating 
whole  generations  of  "priests,"  who  neither  wished  to  be  so,  nor 
believed  that  they  were,  nor  ever  consciously  performed  one  single 
act  belonging  to  the  sacerdotal  office ! 

On  the  whole,  they  were  perhaps  now  disposed  to  admit,  that 
the  Church  of  R,ome  was  neither  capricious  nor  unjust,  when  she 
admitted  a  Protestant  bishop  into  her  communion,  just  as  if  he  had 
been  all  his  life  a  layman.  First  conditionally  baptized,  then 
unconditionally  confirmed,  his  diaconate,  priesthood,  and  episcopate 
all  went  for  nothing.  The  Anglican  bishop,  Gordon,  and  the 
American  bishop,  Ives,  who  were  reconciled  to  the  Church  of 
Rome,  were  dealt  with  in  this  way,  and  no  more  respect  was  paid 
to  their  former  ecclesiastical  character  than  if  they  had  both  been 
women.  If  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  were  to  become  a 
Catholic  to-morrow,  an  event  which  they  had  no  reason  to 
anticipate,  he  would  be  welcomed  by  the  Roman  Church  as  an 
English  married  gentleman,  who  was  tired  of  playing  a  farce,  and 
had  come  to  save  his  soul  in  the  Christian  Church.  Such  was 
the  fact.  It  was  truly,  then,  a  marvel  that  any  Anglicans  should 
gravely  talk  of  "  union"  with  Rome,  or  conceive  that  it  was 
possible,   except  on  the  condition  of  absolute   submission  to  all 


IN   THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH.  85 

ner  claims.  Let  his  High-Church  friends  look  to  this.  It  was 
a  mere  voluntary  delusion  to  blind  themselves  to  the  fact,  which 
every  day  made  clearer,  that  the  Roman  Church  cared  no  more 
what  were  their  private  opinions  as  to  what  is  "  Catholic,"  and 
what  is  not,  and  allowed  them  to  exert  no  more  influence  upon 
her  acts,  than  their  views  on  the  polarization  of  light,  or  the 
jharacter  of  Napoleon,  or  the  possibility  of  making  a  tunnel  under 
the  English  Channel. 

DR.  EASY  thought  he  might  venture  to  say,  on  behalf  of  the 
company,  that  they  were  grateful  to  the  Professor  for  the  very 
interesting  observations  he  had  made.  If  he  were  allowed  to 
resume  them  in  a  single  sentence,  this  was  the  conclusion  he 
should  draw  from  them ;  that  the  clergy  of  their  national  com- 
munity deserved  the  esteem  which  they  enjoyed,  and  rendered 
services  which  the  country  was  not  disposed  to  undervalue ;  but 
that  their  Orders  were  simply  human,  and  had  no  shadow  of 
pretence  to  any  supernatural  character.  They  would  only  forfeit 
their  own  reputation,  as  serious  and  practical  men,  by  claiming  it. 
Neither  the  past  history  of  their  Church,  nor  the  instincts  of  her 
members  at  the  present  day,  would  afford  any  countenance  to  such 
unwise  assumptions.  The  language  of  the  Dean  of  Bristol  inter- 
preted fairly  the  mind  both  of  her  clergy  and  people,  and  har- 
monised with  all  the  facts  of  her  career.  One  of  the  most  eminent 
of  her  living  prelates  had  well  observed,  and  he  thought  most  of 
their  colleagues  would  concur  with  his  grace,  that,  as  regards 
religion  in  general,  and  the  sacred  ministry  in  particular,  "  the 
Church  of  England  was  meant  to  be  a  compromise,"  which  was 
surely  only  another  way  of  stating  the  proposition  of  Dr.  Elliot, 
that  she  was  in  all  respects  purely  human. 

ARCHDEACON  JOLLY  exclaimed  abruptly :  Not  a  "  compro- 
mise," but  a  "  comprehension."  The  latter  was  an  emendation  of 
the  Bishop  of  Oxford,  The  difference,  he  apprehended,  between 
the  two  was  this;  that  whereas  the  Archbishop  regarded  the 
English  Church  as  a  suppression  of  the  distinctions  between  truth 
and  error,  the  Bishop  of  Oxford  defended  her  as  a  combination  of 
both,  which  showed  that  his  lordship  exactly  agreed  with  the 
Dean  of  Bristol. 


86  THE    COMEDY    OF    CONVOCATION 

ARCHDEACON  THEORY  thought  they  were  losing  sight  of 
the  Apostolic  Succession,  and  wished  to  revert  to  it.  Without 
desiring  to  import  into  the  debate  an  improper  levity,  he  would 
ask:  "Was  it  possible  that  the  Apostolic  Succession  might  be 
derived  to  the  English  Church  through  the  female  line?"  (Great 
laughter.)  At  all  events,  their  Church  had  accepted  female  pontiffs 
and  adopted,  with  perfect  docility,  their  spiritual  edicts.  Did  not 
Elizabeth  "  dispense  "  all  her  clergy  from  what  she  herself  called 
the  "imperfections  "  of  their  Orders,  and  did  not  the  clergy  humbly 
accept  the  "dispensation?"  If  the  first  Fathers  of  the  English 
Church  publicly  taught  that  the  sovereign  could  make  a  bishop  or 
priest  "without  ordination,"  Elizabeth  might  fairly  take  them  at 
their  word;  and,  as  her  authority  alone  made  their  "defective" 
Orders  valid,  was  he  not  justified  in  saying  that  the  succession  had 
been  preserved  in  the  Church  of  England  through  the  female  line  ? 

DR.  EASY,  with  deference  to  the  Archdeacon,  would  deprecate 
any  discussion  of  that  point.  It  was,  indeed,  certain  that  many  of 
the  most  illustrious  Reformers  openly  taught,  with  the  evident 
approval  of  their  contemporaries,  that  the  election  of  their  civil 
magistrate  sufficed  to  constitute  the  ministerial  office.  But  the 
Church  of  England,  moulded  into  a  peculiar  form  by  the  Tudors, 
accepted  from  them  a  semblance  of  the  ancient  sacerdotal  hierarchy, 
keeping  the  names,  but  rejecting  the  realities  which  they  repre- 
sented. This  was  a  part  of  the  "compromise  "  to  which  the  Arch- 
bishop had  alluded.  The  acts  of  the  great  daughter  of  Henry  VIII, 
alluded  to  by  the  Archdeacon,  could  only  be  understood  by  bearing 
in  mind  that,  politically  a  Protestant,  she  was  always  in  her  secret 
heart  a  Roman  Catholic.  There  was  probably  nothing  on  earth 
which  she  despised  with  such  fierce  contempt  as  her  own  bishops 

and  clergy.    "  I  made  you  a  bishop,  and  by 1  will  unfrock  you," 

was  the  sort  of  language  in  which  she  addressed  the  unfortunate 
prelates  who  trembled  before  her.  How  she  addressed  their  wives, 
and  especially  Mrs.  Parker,  he  need  not  remind  them.  It  had  been 
suggested  that  two  Roman  augurs  could  not  possibly  have  looked 
each  other  in  the  face  without  laughing;  but  he  should  like  to 
Know  with  what  feelings  two  Elizabethan  bishops,  meeting  in  a 
safe  place,  where  there  were  no  witnesses  to  betray  them,  revealed 
their  appreciation  of  one  another.  . 


IN   THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH.  87 

It  was  useless  to  attempt  to  disguise  the  truth,  in  reviewing  this 
humiliating  pa,rt  of  their  ecclesiastical  history.     Elizabeth  was  in  ? 
false  position,  and  her  keen  sense  of  this  fact  only  increased  her 
exasperation.     She  used  her  new  clergy  as  tools,  giving  them  for 
political  purposes  titles  and  dignities  which  her  conscience  contempt- 
uously refused  them.    If  the  Pope  would  have  condoned  the  scandal 
of  her  birth,  she  would  have  lived  and  died  a  Catholic.     But  she 
was  resolved  to  wear  a  crown ;  and  as  she  could  not  reign  with  the 
Pope's  consent,  she  determined  to  reign  without  it.     Here  was  the 
due  to  her  whole  history.    It  was  a  bitter  humiliation  to  this  proud 
woman,  in  whom  all  the  arrogance  of  the  Tudors  was  concentrated, 
to  be  obliged  to  ask  the  Catholic  bishops  of  her  realm, — whom  she 
confessed  to  be  true  ones, — to  have  the  goodness  to  consecrate  her 
own,  whom  she  despised   in   her   inmost  heart  as   time-serving 
impostors.     But  it  was  a  still  greater  humiliation  to  be  refused ! 
She  was   too  sagacious  to  tolerate  the  silly  delusion,  which  had 
become  popular  in  their  own  day,  of  "Anglo-Catholic"  branch- 
Christianity.     She  knew  what  Catholic  meant,  and  what  Protestant 
meant,  but  had  formed  no  conception  of  a  hybrid  monster  begotten 
of  the  two.     And,  therefore,  as  she  was  not  a  woman  to  be  content 
with  half  measures,  she  took  up  the  axe  of  the  executioner,  and 
watered  the  new  plant  of  her  own  supremacy  with  the  blood  of  all 
who  dared  to  question  it.    Her  father  had  murdered  Fisher,  because 
that  honest  prelate  refused  to  worship  the  idol  which  lie  had  set 
up;   and   now  the  unfortunate  Catholic  clergy  were  carried  in 
troops  to  Tyburn,  because  they  declined  to  accept  her  as  their  Pope. 
But   though  her  policy  drove   her  to  these  deeds  of  blood,  she 
seemed  to  soothe  her  conscience  by  manifesting  her  contempt  for 
the  new  order  of  clergy,  who  humbly  accepted  all  her  decrees,  and 
only  asked  what  they  were  expected  to  believe  and  obey,  in  order 
to  believe  and  obey  with  obsequious  silence.     Like  the  Russian 
Peter,  who  told  his  equally  subservient  bishops :  "  Since  you  will 
not  have  the  Pope  for  your  patriarch,  you  shall  obey  me  only," 
Elizabeth  treated  the  clergy  of  her  own  creation  with  a  kind  of 
ferocious  disdain.     The  Catholics  baffled  her  by  dying.     For  their 
Protestant  successors  she  reserved  a  worse  fate,  by  allowing  them 
to  live.    Over  them  she  ruled  as  Pontiff  with  a  cynic?i  and  remorse- 
less tyranny  at  which  their  own   age  could  afford   to  smile,  but 
which  was  no  laughing  matter  to  their  ancestors.     It  was  difficult 


88  THE   COMEDY   OF  CONVOCATION 

for  an  English  clergyman  of  the  nineteenth  century,  living  under 
the  mild  sway  of  Queen  Victoria,  to  comprehend  how  Elizabeth's 
bishops  could  tolerate  their  lot.  It  was,  in  truth,  a  gloomy  hour. 
But  good  often  came  out  of  evil,  and  it  was  surely  creditable  .-» 
one  of  the  most  excellent  of  human  institutions, — and  he  cared  lo 
claim  no  higher  title  for  the  Church  of  England, — that  h'er  respected 
clergy,  though  still  dutifully  subject  to  the  civil  magistrate,  wer« 
no  longer  the  slaves  of  his  caprice ;  and  that,  in  their  own  day,  the 
successor  of  Parker  was  received  as  a  gentleman  and  a  guest  b} 
the  successor  of  Elizabeth,  without  the  fear  of  insult  and  mockery 
either  for  himself  or  his  wife.     (Loud  applause.) 

DEAN  PRIMITIVE  must  utterly  decline,  for  his  own  part,  to 
see  anything  consoling  in  the  fact  which  appeared  to  give  so  much 
pleasure  to  his  reverend  colleagues.  The  improved  social  condition 
of  the  English  clergy, — which  he  would  take  leave  to  say  was  due 
mainly  to  their  own  merits, — might,  indeed,  be  a  subject  for  thank- 
fulness; but  he  protested  against  the  Erastian  notion  that  it  was  a 
full  compensation  for  the  loss,  which  so  many  of  his  reverend 
friends  seemed  to  accept  with  complete  indifference,  of  every  claim 
to  anything  higher  than  a  purely  earthly  character. 

DEAN  BLUNT  desired  to  recall  the  assembly  from  these  col- 
lateral topics  to  the  question  of  Anglican  Orders,  upon  which,  he 
presumed  to  think,  there  was  still  a  good  deal  to  be  said.  If  they 
had  any  validity,  in  the  sense  of  that  term  employed  by  the  High- 
Church  party,  it  could  only  be  by  reason  of  their  derivation  from 
Rome.  Now  here,  as  the  learned  Professor  had  justly  intimated, 
they  had  to  deal  with  two  distinct  lines  of  thought,  one  purely 
historical,  the  other  belonging  to  the  sphere  of  morals  and  theology. 
As  tu  the  first,  which  was  the  least  important,  he  thought  that 
no  adequate  proof  had  ever  been  given,  or  could  be  given,  of  the 
integrity  of  their  Succession.  The  evidence  which  centuries  had 
failed  to  complete  would  never  be  completed  at  all.  It  was  surely 
a  fatal  note  against  their  High-Church  friends,  that  they  had 
always  been  occupied  in  vindicating  their  Orders !  The  attitude 
of  the  rest  of  Christendom  towards  them  sufficiently  exposed  their 
want  of  success. 

A  valued  friend  of  his  own,  and  a  great  ornament  of  the  Puseyite 


IN   THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH.  89 

party,  had  assured  him,  with  a  sorrowful  gravity  which  he  was 
incapable  of  treating  with  ridicule,  that  "for  years  he  had  been  in 
the  habit  of  asking  God  to  forgive  him,  every  time  he  stood  before 
the  altar,  if  he  were  not  really  a  Catholic  priest."  He  had  reason 
to  believe  that,  at  least  among  the  more  earnest  and  conscientious 
members  of  that  party,  this  was  a  common  case. 

But  if  the  purely  historical  aspect  of  the  question  was,  to  put  it 
at  the  lowest,  a  maze  of  doubt  and  peradventure,  the  moral  diffi- 
culties were  still  more  formidable,  and  darkened  the  whole  ground 
with  their  portentous  shadow.  He  would  ask  Archdeacon  Chasuble, 
if  he  were  not  absorbed  in  conversation  with  his  neighbour,  to 
favour  him  with  his  attention,  while  he  endeavoured  to  examine 
one  only  of  these  difficulties,  of  which  the  number  was  legion. 
Had  the  Archdeacon,  and  the  clergy  who  shared  his  opinions,  while 
consoling  themselves  with  the  belief  that  they  derived  their  orders 
from  Rome,  ever  seriously  considered  how  such  a  claim  could  be 
reconciled  with  the  language  of  the  Reformers,  including  the 
principal  founders  and  doctors  of  their  own  Church  ?  The  latter 
thought,  and  said,  with  an  energy  of  expression  which  made  all 
doubt  about  their  meaning  impossible,  that  for  nearly  a  thousand 
years  the  whole  Roman  priesthood  lay  wallowing  in  idolatry  and 
corruption.  They  proclaimed,  as  the  all-sufficient  defense  of  their 
own  separation,  that  it  was  necessary  to  the  salvation  of  every 
Christian  soul  to  flee  from  that  apostate  Church,  and  to  form  a  new 
religion,  with  Thirty-Nine  new  Articles  of  Christian  belief,  new 
forms  of  Christian  worship,  and  new  and  frightful  penalties  for  non- 
confirmity.  For  more  than  two  hundred  years,  the  English  bishops, 
whom  they  were  now  bid  to  regard  as  Catholics,  gave  their  hearty 
assent  to  laws  which  made  it  death  to  be  reconciled  to  the  Church 
of  Rome,  death  to  say  or  hear  Mass,  death  to  be,  or  to  harbour,  a 
priest;  and,  as  if  this  were  not  a  sufficient  proof  of  their  hatred  to 
Rome,  life-long  imprisonment  and  confiscation  of  goods  was  the 
penalty  either  for  sending  a  child  to  a  Catholic  country  for  educa- 
tion, or  having  him  brought  up  a  Catholic  at  home. 

But  this  was  not  all.  During  that  whole  period,  and  from  the 
first  hour  of  her  existence,  all  the  pulpits  of  the  National  Church 
had  resounded  with  imprecations  against  the  Roman  sorceress,  and 
Duccessive  generations  of  Englishmen  were  carefully  nurtured  by 
the  bishops  and  clergy,  in  that  passionate  abhorrence  of  the  very 


90  THE   COMEDY   OF   CONVOCATION 

name  of  Catholic  which  distinguished  them  to  this  day.  Theii 
very  literature  had  been  formed  in  the  same  spirit,  which  breathed 
in  every  page,  not  only  of  episcopal  charges  and  parochial  sermons, 
but  even  of  biographies  and  works  of  fiction,  the  same  unflagging 
hatred  of  the  religion  which  England  had  abolished. 

And  now,  in  spite  cf  these  well-known  facts,  they  were  seriously 
told,  that  during  all  this  time  they  had  been  Catholics  without 
knowing  it;  their  bishops  heirs  of  St.  Augustine,  St.  Anselm,  and 
St.  Thomas  of  Canterbury;  and  their  ministers  sacrificing  priests, 
full  of  reverence  for  the  mysteries  of  the  altar,  and  the  august 
sacrament  of  penance !  He  wished  to  speak  calmly,  but  he  would 
venture  to  ask :  Was  ever  God  so  mocked  ?     (Sensation.) 

He  was  persuaded  that  no  one  in  that  assembly  would  venture  to 
deny,  that  all  the  English  reformers,  the  very  men  who  founded  their 
Church  and  gave  them  their  formularies,  had  branded  the  Catholic 
Church  with  more  prodigious  curses  than  the  Saviour  of  men  had 
ever  predicted  for  her  blessings  and  triumphs.  And  yet  they  were 
now  to  be  told  that  all  this  was  a  mistake, — a  mere  display  of  harm- 
less rhetoric ;  and  that,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  English  clergy  were 
identical,  in  office  and  in  gifts,  with  their  Roman  brethren !  He 
could  understand  that -any  one  who  objected  to  the  language  of  the 
Beformers,  and  had  learned  to  abhor  their  doctrines,  should  humbly 
sue  for  pardon  and  reconciliation  with  the  Holy  See ;  but  that  a 
community  which  had  such  an  origin,  and  such  a  history,  as  their 
own,  should  pretend  to  be  anxious  about  its  unbroken  connection 
with  Rome,  and  claim  to  be  in  all  essentials  one  with  her,  and  to  have 
common  orders  and  common  sacraments,  and  to  form  part  of  the 
great  Christian  commonwealth,  precisely  because  it  could  boast  filial 
generation  from  her;  there  was  in  this  notion  such  an  audacious 
denial  of  truth  and  common  sense, — considering  what  the  Church 
of  England  had  ever  been,  and  still  was, — that  it  was  difficult  to 
treat  it  seriously.  That  an  Anglican  minister,  a  disciple  of  the 
Articles  and  the  Homilies,  a  successor  of  Cranmer  and  Jewel,  of 
Abbot  and  Whitgift, — holding  perhaps  a  benefice  once  held  by 
a  Catholic  priest,  and  ministering  at  a  table  which  had  been 
substituted  for  a  Catholic  altar, — should  venture  to  say  all 
this;  besides  being  the  most  intolerable  insult  to  his  own.  Church, 
was  as  if  a  man  should  contend  proudly  for  a  pedigree  derived 
through  countless  generations  of  felons.     What!  call  the  whole 


IN   THE   ENGLISH   CHUKOT.  91 

Catholic  priesthood  "the  spawn  of  Antichrist,"  as  your  own  fathers 
did,  and  then  attempt  to  prove  that  your  Orders  are  manifestly 
divine,  because  you  can  trace  them  to  that  source;  revile  the  whole 
Catholic  Church  as  "the  harlot  of  Babylon,"  as  twenty  generations 
of  your  own  bishops  and  clergy  did,  and  then  claim  her  as  your 
Mother !  Surely  this  was  either  the  last  and  wildest  eccentricity 
of  the  human  mind,  or  else  the  most  impudent  trifling  with  serious 
things  of  which  any  age  or  country  could  furnish  an  example. 

ARCHDEACON  CHASUBLE  was  content  to  reply  to  the  Dean 
that  the  whole  scaffolding  of  his  discourse  tumbled  to  pieces  before 
the  simple  fact,  that  many  English  clergymen,  of  whom  he  was 
proud  to  be  one,  utterly  denied  that  the  Roman  Church  had  ever 
been  anti-Christian,  or  her  clergy  apostate. 

DEAN  BLUNT  would,  in  that  case,  suggest  to  the  Archdeacon 
to  transfer  his  reproaches  and  anathemas  from  the  Church  which, 
in  his  opinion,  had  never  deserved  them,  to  the  impious  community 
which  had  dared  to  utter  them.    (Loud  cheers.)    It  was,  of  course, 
open   to  Archdeacon  Chasuble  and  his  friends  to  repudiate  the 
language  of  the  men  who  composed  the  Articles  and  Homilies;  but 
let  them  repudiate  at  the  same  time  the  work  which  they  did  and 
the  Church  which  they  founded.     No  man,  they  were  told,  could 
serve  two  masters.     Let  the  Archdeacon  beware  lest  he  fall  between 
two  stools.     No  proposition,  he  conceived,  could  be  more  indisput- 
able than  this,— that  if  the  Church  of  Rome  did  not  deserve  the 
curses  which  the  Church  of  England  had  heaped  upon  her,  they 
must  recoil  upon  the  latter.     If  the  Church  of  Rome  was  their 
mother,  their  sister,  or  in  any  other  degree  related  to  them  ;  if  she 
was  the  source  of  their  Order,  and  therefore  of  their  sacraments, 
and  therefore  of  their  highest  spiritual  blessings,  according  to  the 
doctrine   of   High-Churchmen;     then   were   the  founders    of  the 
Church  of  England,  and  nearly  all  her  members  up  to  the  present 
hour,  monsters  of  ingratitude,  calumny,  and  falsehood.      It  was  as 
impossible  to  profess  esteem  for  both  Churches  at  once,  as  it  would 
be  to  serve  God  and  Satan  at  the  same  moment,  and  by  the  same 
act.     Men  must  choose  between  the  two,  and  except  the  conse- 
quences of  their  choice.     One  thing  alone  they  could  not  do,  they 
could  not,  with  the  Reformers,  separate  from  the  Catholic  Church 


92  THE   COMEDY   OF   CONVOCATION 

on  the  ground  that  she  was  "  Anti-Christian,"  and  yet  assert,  with 
the  Puseyites,  that  they  were  themselves  the  legitimate  descendants 
of  Antichrist.      (General  marks  of  approval.) 

ARCHDEACON  CHASUBLE  had  never  denied,  and  would  not 
beoin  by  denying  now,  the  painful  and  distressing  difficulties 
which  beset  clergymen  of  his  own  views  in  dealing  with  these 
momentous  subjects.  But  where  doubt  and  uncertainty  seemed 
to  be  their  providential  lot,  he  must  consider  it  the  mark  of  a 
Christian  temper  to  accept  such  crosses  in  a  humble  and  patient 
spirit.  He  was  not  disposed  to  cut  the  Gordian  knot  of  their 
difficulties,  but  would  rather  continue  to  bear  than  seek  escape 
from  them  by  so  rude  a  process.  If,  however,  he  could  not,  as  he 
freely  admitted,  refuse  a  certain  measure  of  assent  to  the  arguments 
of  the  Dean,  nor  dispute  that  a  vast  majority  of  English  Church- 
men had  always  accepted  the  principles  and  maxims  upon  which 
they  were  founded,  he  would  at  least  venture  to  reply  to  them  by 
a  rcductio  ad  absurdum,  and  ask  their  advocates  if  they  were  pre- 
pared to  accept  all  the  conclusions  which  logically  flowed  from 
them. 

It  was,  every  one  would  admit,  a  necessary  result  of  the  Dean's 
reasoning  that  Dr.  Arnold  was  quite  right  when  he  said,  that  his 
butler  had  as  much  divine  authority  to  administer  the  sacraments 
as  himself.  Where  all  were  laymen,  and  the  possession  of  merely 
human  Orders  left  them  all  in  that  condition,  all  were  equally 
qualified,  as  respected  supernatural  powers,  to  handle  the  mysteries 
of  religion.  The  Tower  of  Babel,  on  this  hypothesis,  was  the  only 
true  type  of  the  Christian  Church  and  ministry.  For  his  part,  he 
must  object  to  an  ecclesiastical  economy  which  would  admit  of  his 
butler  or  his  tailor  proposing  to  ordain  him  priest  or  bishop,  on  the 
ground  that  their  succession  from  the  Apostles  and  that  of  the 
Bishop  of  London  were  equally  susceptible,  or  equally  destitute,  of 
proof.  He  respected  Authority.  (Cries  of  "  Oh  !  oh  !  ")  He  was 
speaking  for  himself,  and  repeated  that  he  respected  Authority, 
and  venerated  Order.  He  could  not  believe  that  of  all  the  works 
of  God  the  Church  must  be  the  least  symmetrical  and  harmonious, 
the  mobt  confused  and  disorderly  ;  and  therefore  he  demanded  some 
higher  credential  of  divine  commission  than  a  man's  own  apprecia- 
tion of  his  personal  fitness.     He  coirid  not  detect  the  signs  of  an 


IN   THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH.  93 

Apostle  in  one  who  elected  himself,  or  was  elected  by  his  congre- 
gation, on  the  ground  that  his  ideas  of  Christianity  and  their  own 
were   sufficiently  alike.     Ii   everybody   was    equally   qualified    to 
teach  religion,  it  was  manifest  that  nobody  required  to  be  taught. 
He  should   like  to  accompany  the  Professor  to  certain  churches 
which  he  would  not  name,  but  of  which  the  incumbents  shared  the 
opinions  of  the  Dean  of  Bristol  and  Dr.  Arnold.     He  would  suppose 
the  clergyman  to  choose  for  his  text,  "Rebuke  with  all  authority," 
and  would  ask  if  he  might  not  be  reasonably  expected  to  deliver 
some  such  discourse  as  the  following :  "  My  brethren,  as  I  have  no 
more  right  to  rebuke  you  than  you  have  to  rebuke  me,  and  only 
just  so  much  authority  to  teach  as  you  are  willing  to  confer  upon 
me,  permit  me  to  observe  to  you,  Now  to  God  the  Father,"  &c. 
(Great  laughter.)     The  Dean  would  not  deny  that  such  a  sermon 
would    aptly   express    the    preacher's    conviction,    that  Anglican 
Orders  were   purely  human.     Again,    he  would    suppose   such  a 
clergyman  to  preach  from  the  words,  "  Watch  over  the  flock  of  which 
the  Holy  Ghost  has  made  you  overseer,  in  order  to  govern  the  Church 
of  God."     Evidently,  if  he  would  do  justice  to  his  own  belief,  he 
ought  to  address  his  flock  in  such  terms  as  the  following:  "As  it 
is  you  who  are  watching  over  me,  and  not  I  over  you,  and  as  my 
sole  function  is  to  tickle  your  itching  ears,  you  will  kindly  pardon 
me  if  I  make  the  unpleasant  ceremony  as  brief  as  possible,  and 
quit  the  pulpit  at  once.     This  will  save  me  from  occupying  a  ridic- 
ulous position,  and  spare  you  the  trouble  of  criticising  a  sermon 
which  it  is  not  my  intention  to  deliver.     Clerk,  give  out  a  hymn, 
and  make  your  own  choice."     Once  more,  he  would  ask  if  it  did 
not  result  from  the  Professor's  view  of  the  character  of  the  English 
Church,  which  Dr.  Elliot  called  "  the  creature  of  the  law,"  and 
which  a  living  archbishop  declared  was  "meant  to  be  a  compro- 
mise," that  when  our  Lord  said,  "Go,  and  teach  all  nations,"  He 
signified  the  command,  "  Go,  and  let  all  nations  teach  you."     So, 
also,  when  St.  Paul  affirmed,  "  J\ro  man  taketh  to  himself  this  honour 
but  he  that  is  called  of  God,  as  ivas  Aaron,"  he  doubtless  wished  the 
Corinthians  to  understand,  "Every  man  ought  to  take  this  honour 
to  himself  if  he  aspire  to  it,  for  the  age  of  Aaron  is  excessively 
remote,  and  his    example   perfectly  obsolete."     In    like   manner, 
when    the    same  Apostle    said,    "How   shall  they  preach,    except 
they  be  sent?"   many  of  the  clergy  would   aptly  reply,    "As  to 


94  THE   COMEDY   OF   CONVOCATION 

preaching,  I  find  no  difficulty  in  it;  and  as  to  being  sent,  I  send 
myself." 

He  thought  he  had  sufficiently  indicated  what  must  be  the  inevi- 
table result  of  the  Dean's  principles  in  the  spiritual,  and  he  would 
now  beg  him  to  consider  what  kind  of  fruits  they  would  produce 
in  the  social  order.  Young  gentlemen  would  evidently  present 
themselves  to  commissions  in  the  army.  Policemen  would  display 
their  robust  forms,  without  the  sanction  of  Sir  Richard  Mayne, 
wherever  they  deemed  it  advantageous  to  the  interests  of  the  public, 
or  their  own.  Students  of  various  degrees  of  maturity  would  call 
themselves  to  the  bar,  or  take  their  seats  in  Parliament,  or  even  in 
the  Cabinet,  amply  commissioned  by  the  rational  conviction  that 
Cicero  and  Demosthenes  were  but  their  imperfect  types,  and  only 
designed  by  nature  to  prepare  the  way  for  their  incomparable  suc- 
cessors. Finally,  persons  addicted  to  an  immoral  preference  for 
the  goods  of  others,  or  disposed  to  indulge  in  a  premature  repe- 
tition of  the  marriage  rites,  would  enjoy  the  privilege  of  taking 
themselves  up  as  their  own  policemen,  trying  themselves  as  their 
own  jury,  and  acquitting  themselves  as  their  own  judge.  And  the 
eccentricities  of  these  various  classes,  he  would  venture  to  add, 
Would  be  both  less  grotesque  and  less  hurtful  to  society  than  the 
pranks  of  a  national  clergy,  distinguished  only  by  the  colour  of  a 
cravat  from  the  laymen  around  them,  and  presuming  to  handle 
divine  things  with  only  a  human  vocation. 

He  would  earnestly  entreat  that  due  consideration  be  given  to  the 
fact  that,  on  the  principle  laid  down  by  the  Dean,  all  the  English 
clergy,  excepting  only  those  who  candidly  repudiated  all  pretence 
to  a  supernatural  calling,  were  simply  criminal  and  dangerous  im- 
postors. He  would  go  further,  and  say,  without  fear  of  contradic- 
tion, that  if  English  Orders  were  human,  he  could  conceive  nothing 
in  creation  so  degraded,  nothing  so  worthy  of  a  nation's  mockery 
and  scorn,  as  an  Anglican  bishop.  On  that  supposition,  their  pre- 
lates were  an  offence  against  truth,  and  a  scandal  in  the  land.  For 
his  part,  he  would  rather  be  a  strolling  pieman,  or  an  acrobat  at  a 
fair.  Such  men  as  these  might  possibly  deserve  esteem,  because  they 
followed  a  calling  for  which  they  had  the  necessary  gifts;  but  an 
unconsecrated  bishop  should  be  scourged  from  the  face  of  the  earth. 
Ho  was  a  thing  to  make  the  angels  weep.  His  whole  life  was  a  lie. 
He   was    to   be    utterly  abhorred   and  execrated,   and   should   bo 


IN   THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH.  95 

received  everywhere,  as  Dr.  Alexander  was  on  his  entrance  into 
Jerusalem,  with  a  shower  of  mud  and  stories. 

Ah !  he  had  never  expected  to  hear  it  gravely  discussed  in  such 
an  assembly,  whether  English  Orders  were  human  or  divine.  His 
heart  was  oppressed  with  anguish  in  listening  to  such  a  deoate. 
The  Orders  of  the  English  Church  he  believed  to  be  identical  with 
those  of  the  Eoman,  and,  like  them,  divine  in  origin,  in  succession, 
and  in  power.  If  he  could  doubt  it,  he  would  flee  from  the 
National  Church  as  from  a  pestilence ;  for  it  would  be  shame  and 
death  to  minister  at  an  altar  which  was  only  a  table,  and  where 
every  pseudo-priestly  act  was  a  grimace  and  a  sham,  a  mockery 
of  God,  of  one's  neighbour,  and  of  one's  own  soul. 

(Some  moments  elapsed  after  the  Archdeacon  had  ceased  to  speak 
before  any  one  rose  to  claim  the  attention  of  the  meeting.  The  clergy 
seemed  to  be  occupied  in  whispering  to  one  another  their  impres- 
sions of  what  they  had  just  heard.  Some  observed  that  he  had  not 
attempted  to  answer  Dean  Blunt's  arguments,  and  others  that  his 
retort  was  sophistical,  because  no  one  maintained  that  the  clergy 
could  take  cures  without  the  sanction  of  the  civil  magistrate.  At 
length  Dean  Critical  rose  from  an  arm-chair  by  the  side  of  the  Pro- 
fessor of  History,  with  whom  he  had  been  engaged  in  animated 
conversation,  and  advancing  to  the  opposite  corner  of  the  chimney- 
piece,  which  Archdeacon  Chasuble  had  just  vacated,  addressed 
himself  to  the  assembly  with  a  calm  voice  and  subdued  manner.) 

It  had  never,  he  said,  been  his  fortune  on  any  previous  occasion 
to  hear  a  grave  person  deliver  a  solemn  harangue  from  the  top  of  a 
house  of  cards.  Prudent  builders  secured  their  foundation  before 
they  put  on  the  roof,  but  the  Archdeacon  began  with  his  spire,  and 
worked  placidly  downwards  to  the  crypt.  Long  before  he  arrived ' 
at  that  lower  region,  his  pack  of  cards  had  disappeared,  and  of  his 
fancy  edifice  not  a  trace  remained.  He  wanted  the  robust  courage 
of  the  Archdeacon,  and  would  crave  permission  to  explain  why  he 
declined  to  inhabit  the  shadowy  structure  of  so  sentimental  an 
architect. 

He  had  asked  himself  several  times  during  the  speech  of  the 
Aichdeacon,  (he  said  it  without  any  unkind  or  disrespectful 
feeling,)  whether  human  reason  and  conscience,  weak  as  the  one 
might   be    and   deceitful   as  wa3    the   other,  could   really  accept 


9G  THE   COMEDY   OF   CONVOCATION 

without  misQ-ivinor,  the  lot  with  which  he  avowed  himself  content. 
What !  doubt  as  to  the  heritage  of  Orders,  with  the  sure  possession 
of  which  you  deemed  all  spiritual  treasures  indissolubly  bound  up! — 
doubt  as  to  the  validity  of  consecrations,  which  could  never  be 
proved,  and  were  morally  and  materially  impossible,  but  upon  the 
efficacy  of  which  your  whole  religious  life  hung ! — doubt  as  to  the 
possession  of  Powers,  your  claim  to  which  was  as  vehemently 
derided  by  nine-tenths  of  your  own  community  as  by  the  whole 
world  without  it,  but  the  want  of  which  reduced  you  to  spiritual 
atrophy  and  death ! — doubt  as  to  your  generation  from  a  Church, 
in  which  you  professed  to  find  the  cradle  of  your  own,  but  against 
which  the  latter  was  a  living  protest,  and  which  in  turn,  far  from 
admitting  the  parentage,  refused  to  regard  you  in  any  other  light 
than  as  heathens  or  heretics  in  need  of  conversion  ! — doubt  both  as 
to  her  doctrines  and  your  own,  the  first  being  rejected  by  you  in 
spite  of  the  Roman  Church  bidding  you  to  embrace  them,  and  the 
second  maintained  by  you  in  spite  of  the  English  Church  forbidding 
you  to  hold  them! — doubt  as  to  your  origin,  doubt  as  to  your 
history,  and  doubt  as  to  your  future ! — doubt  as  to  doctrine,  priest- 
hood, and  sacraments ! — doubt  as  to  whence  you  came,  what  you 
are,  and  whither  you  are  going !  Ah  !  truly  it  was  a  marvel  that 
men  like  the  Archdeacon  could  move  under  the  burden  of  such  a 
creed,  which  could  neither  soothe  the  soul  nor  satisfy  the  intellect, 
and  which  was  as  earnestly  condemned  by  all  outside  their  own 
Church,  as  it  was  ridiculed  by  almost  all  within  her. 

How  different  was  his  own  position,  and  that  of  the  bishops  and 
clergy  whose  principles  he  shared !  Disavowing  all  foolish  claims 
to  supernatural  powers,  which  were  rebuked  by  their  past  history 
as  well  as  by  their  present  habits  of  life  and  character,  they  accepted 
the  Reformation  as  a  just  attempt  to  reduce  the  Christian  religion 
to  its  true  limits  as  a  perfect  system  of  morals,  of  which  the  sole 
dogmatic  basis  was  the  doctrine  of  the  Atonement.  With  this 
profession  of  faith,  they  had  a  sufficient  key  to  heaven,  and  needed 
'  not  the  unreal  arts  of  an  obsolete  priesthood,  which  warred  against 
the  true  genius  of  Christianity.  To  instruct  the  ignorant,  to  console 
the  afflicted,  and  to  nold  up  to  all  the  perfect  work  of  the  Saviour, 
this  was  their  religion,  as  he  believed  it  was  that  of  the  apostles. 
The  claims  of  the  Eoman  Church  were  nothing  to  them,  for  they 
simply  put  them  aside.     They  approved,  on  the  whole,  the  censures 


m  THE    ENGLISH   CHURCH.  97 

pronounced  by  the  founders  of  Anglicanism,  though  they  regretted 
the  intemperance  of  the  language  which  their  peculiar  position 
explained  and  partly  excused.  They  had  no  difficulties  and  no 
doubts;  and  their  creed,  which  reduced  the  mysteries  of  religion 
to  those  concerning  the  Person  and  office  of  the  Son  of  God,  and 
made  but  little  account  of  sacraments,  was  as  much  in  harmonv 
with  the  wants  of  a  healthy  soul  as  with  the  conceptions  of  a 
j^ound  mind.  They  were  Protestant  ministers,  not  Catholic  priests ; 
and  if  their  religion  separated  them  from  the  rest  of  the  Christian 
world,  it  was  surely  better  honestly  to  acknowledge  a  fact  which 
they  could  not  change,  and  which  reflected  no  discredit  upon  them, 
than  to  affect  to  disguise  it  by  transparent  sophistry  and  paltry 
subterfuge.     (General  cheering.) 

DEAN  PRIMITIVE  would  venture  to  ask  how  his  learned 
friend,  who  would  not  hear  of  mysteries  nor  of  their  priestly 
stewards  and  dispensers,  disposed  of  the  commission  given  by  our 
Lord  to  His  Apostles  to  bind  and  loose  sins?  or  how  he  dealt  with 
the  awful  texts  setting  forth  the  Real  Presence  ? 

DEAN  CRITICAL  was  quite  content  to  accept  the  rational 
interpretation  which  had  always  been  put  upon  such  passages  by 
his  own  Church ;  and  if  there  was  any  doubt  or  dispute  about  her 
teaching  on  such  points,  all  who  heard  him  would  admit  that  at 
least  there  could  be  none  whatever  about  her  practice.  But  he 
would  beg  leave  to  continue  his  observations.  Let  them  consider 
some  of  the  practical  consequences  which  ensued  upon  the  claim 
of  certain  Protestant  ministers  to  possess  and  use  the  powers  of 
Catholic  priests.  It  seemed  to  him  that  if  he  held  the  opinions 
of  his  High-Church  brethren,  his  first  thought  would  be  to  conceal 
them  from  all  mankind  in  the  secret  of  his  own  heart.  He  should 
not  dare  to  avow,  because  he  should  not  dare  to  act  upon  them. 
How,  for  example,  could  he  venture,  without  the  slightest  prepara- 
tion from  childhood  upwards,  born  of  the  world  and  belonging  to 
it  in  all  his  interests,  feelings,  and  habits,  to  make  pretence  of 
hearing  confessions  without  the  sanction  of  his  superiors,  or  to 
offer  a  semblance  of  Mass  in  disloyal  opposition  to  it  ?  How 
could  he  teach  with  a  grave  face  that  sacramental  absolution  was 
the  ordinary  instrument  for  the  remission  of  sin,  when  he  knew 


98  THE   COMEDY    OF   CONVOCATION 

that  his  own  Church  had  utterly  neglected  to  employ  this  migh:y 
instrument  during  three  centuries,  (which  she  could  hardly  have 
done  if  she  had  been  conscious  of  possessing  it,)  and  that  he 
himself  was  quite  ready  to  give  communion  to  people  who  never 
had  received,  and  never  intended  to  ask  for,  such  absolution  ? 
How  could  he  mock  himself  and  his  hearers  by  teaching  that 
the  Protestant  Reformation,  of  which  the  main  object  was  to 
uproot  the  Catholic  religion  with  all  its  distinctive  tenets  and 
practices,  was  really  designed  to  preserve  it  intact  in  this  realm  ? 
How  could  he  remain  voluntarily,  year  after  year,  in  close  ecclesi- 
astical communion  with  bishops  and  clergy  who  execrated  doctrines 
which  he  held  to  be  divine,  and  spent  their  lives  in  teaching  their 
contraries?  How  could  he  say  to  the  world  without  a  blush,  "I 
attach  so  little  importance  to  the  mysterious  doctrines  which  I 
profess  with  my  lips,  that,  as  you  see,  I  continue  to  give  my  allegi- 
ance to  a  bishop  who  condemns  them,  and  remain  in  fraternal  bonds 
with  a  clergy  which  blasphemes  them  ?  "  God  keep  them  all  from 
such  dishonour  as  this,  the  worst  and  most  grievous  reproach  which 
could  rest  on  the  conscience  of  a  Christian  man.  Better  far  to  be 
ignorant  of  the  most  precious  doctrines  of  the  Christian  covenant, 
than  to  trample  under  foot,  by  such  revolting  insincerity,  the  very 
truths  which  they  professed  to  honour.     (Loud  applause.) 

And  now  let  him  refer,  in  conclusion,  to  that  peculiar  mystery 
which  surpassed  all  others  in  the  effects  which  it  had  produced  in 
modifying  the  form  and  character  of  Christian  worship  in  all  save 
Protestant  communities.  He  alluded  to  the  mystery  which  might 
be  said  to  constitute  the  main  spring  of  religious  life  in  all  the 
Eastern  and  Western  Churches  alike,  except  only  their  own.  In  the 
Catholic  and  Oriental  Churches,  its  seat  was  the  altar,  and  its  home 
was  the  tabernacle.  A  lamp  burned  night  and  day  before  it;  and 
from  early  morn  to  the  hour  which  called  all  to  rest,  silent  wor- 
shippers adored  the  majesty  of  that  mystical  Presence  in  which 
they  had  been  taught  from  childhood  to  believe,  and  which  was  not 
more  securely  guarded  from  what  they  would  deem  profanation  by 
a  minute  and  elaborate  ritual,  than  by  the  tender  instinct  and 
jealous  devotion  of  the  faithful  themselves. 

Now,  Archdeacon  Chasuble  and  his  friends  professed  to  have  the 
power  to  consecrate  the  Host.  He  would  ask  leave  to  address  to 
them  a  serious  question.     Would  they  maintain,  in  the  face  of 


IN   THE   ENGLISH   CHUECH.  99 

history  and  of  the  unanimous  testimony  of  the  whole  people  of 
these  islands,  that  any  provision  whatever  was  made  for  such 
a  guest  in  the  Church  of  England?  Where  was  the  tabernacle? 
broken  into  fragments  like  the  altar  upon  which  it  once  stood! 
Where  was  the  ritual,  defining  with  more  than  legal  precision  how 
such  a  mystery  should  be  handled  ?  It  was  utterly  silent  on  the 
whole  subject,  declaring  only  that  Christ's  body  could  not  be  "in 
two  places  at  once,"  leaving  the  poor  shadow  to  the  caprice  of 
minister  and  people,  and  sternly  forbidding  that  the  reality  should 
be  "lifted  up  or  worshipped."  Did  this  look  like  a  design  on  the 
part  of  the  English  Church  to  furnish  a  lodging  for  what  the 
Catholics  called  "  the  sacramental  king?"  It  would  be  a  sentence 
of  death  upon  her  to  suppose  it.  Either  she  believed  the  mystery, 
and  did  not  care  to  make  any  preparation  for  it,  which  would  be 
charging  her  with  irreverence,  such  as  fiends  could  not  surpass,  or 
she  utterly  rejected  it,  and  then  her  ritual  and  her  practice  enforced 
and  illustrated  the  denial. 

If  his  High-Church  friends, — who  really  seemed  to  him  to  believe 
nothing  so  little  as  the  very  dogmas  which  they  professed  to  regard 
with  solemn  awe,  but  of  which  they  tranquilly  contemplated  the 
utter  desecration  day  by  day  in  their  own  communion, — would 
consider  what  had  been  the  attendant  circumstances,  already  glanced 
at  by  previous  speakers,  in  every  celebration  of  the  Lord's  Supper 
during  three  hundred  years,  he  conceived  that  they  would  not  dare 
to  impute  to  the  Church  of  England  any  belief  in  the  Real  Presence. 
It  would  be  a  gratuitous  outrage  upon  her.  Using  always  common 
leavened  bread, — as  if  on  purpose  to  multiply  the  chances  of  acci- 
dent, against  which  she  literally  made  no  provision  whatever,  so 
utterly  indifferent  was  she  to  the  whole  matter, — crumbs  must 
inevitably  be  scattered  about  the  communion  rails,  and  be  aban- 
doned to  whatever  fate  might  befall  them,  including  that  of 
being  removed  by  an  old  woman  with  her  shovel  on  the  Monday 
morning.  Moreover,  whole  masses  of  "  consecrated"  bread  and 
wine,  not  consumed  by  the  communicants,  were  afterwards,  in  a 
multitude  of  parishes,  and  even  in  some  of  their  cathedrals,  left  to 
the  discretion  of  the  clerk,  who  took  them  home,  or  cast  them  into 
a  graveyard,  or  otherwise  disposed  of  these  despised  fragments  of  a 
divine  banquet,  at  his  own  caprice.  And  their  Prayer-Book  con- 
tained nothing  to  prevent  such  acts,  to  which  bishops  and  other 


100  THE   COMEDY   OF   CONVOCATION 

dignitaries  were  constantly  consenting  parties.     Now  he  had  taken 
pains    to    inquire   of   a    Roman    Catholic   friend    what  was    the 
practice  of  his  Church  ?     Her  rubrics,  which  he  had  examined, 
seemed  to  make  provision  for  every  conceivable  accident  which 
could  possibly  occur,  and  minutely  directed  in  what  manner  they 
should  severally  be  dealt  with.     If,  in  spite  of  every  precaution,  a 
particle  should  fall  to  the  ground, — an  event,  he  was  assured,  which 
was  almost  unknown, — it  was  immediately  raised  with  all  reverence 
and  replaced  in  the  Paten  or  Ciborium,  and  at  the  close  of  the 
service  the  clergy  went  in  procession,  and,  kneeling  on  their  knees, 
cut  out  the  piece  of  the  carpet  on  which  the  particle  had  fallen,  and 
carefully   consumed  it   by  fire.     Well  these  men  were  at   least 
consistent.     God  forbid  that  he  should  sneer  at  them.     They  prac- 
tised what  they  professed  to  believe,  and  what,  doubtless,  they  did 
believe.     But  how  was  it,  how  had  it  ever  been,  in  the  English 
Church  ?     Suppose  there  were  in  England  ten  thousand  churches, 
and  that  the  Lord's  Supper  had  been  celebrated  in  each  of  them 
four  times  a  year  for  three  hundred  years.     It  would  follow,  on  the 
theory  of  High-Churchmen,  that  a  stupendous  sacrilege  had  been 
enacted  in  England,  since  the  Reformation,  at  least  twelve  million 
times ;  and  that  the  worst  horrors  and  ignominies  of  the  Passion  had 
been  renewed  in  the  Church  of  England,  without  fear  and  without 
remorse,  every  time  communion  was  given  to  her  members.     For 
his  part,  he  would  abandon  that  Church  on  the  instant  in  horror 
and  trembling,  if  he  held  the  opinions  of  Archdeacon  Chasuble. 
But  he  hastened  to  add,  that  there  was  nothing  in  what  he  had 
said  to  disturb  the  most  timid  conscience.     The  appalling  scenes 
which  he  had  imagined  had  never  really  occurred.     The  Church  of 
England  believed  nothing  of  these  dread  mysteries,  and  therefore 
made  no  provision  against  their  profanation.     He  would  take  the 
liberty  to  add,  that  it  was  very  evident  his  High-Church  friends 
did  not  believe  them  either ;  for  if  they  did,  they  could  not  remain 
another  hour  in  the.  English  Church. 

(At  this  moment  the  door  was  thrown  open,  and  a  solemn  butler, 
who  might  easily  have  been  mistaken  for  a  bishop  in  plain  clothes, 
announced,  as  if  he  were  giving  out  a  refreshing  text,  that  "  tea  was 
served.  "  The  company  descended  to  the  dining-room,  where  they 
found  ar  entertainment  worthy  of  their  host  and  of  themselves. 


IN  TEE  ENGLISH  CHURCH.  101 

Mr.  Kiclds  volunteered  to  say  grace,  but,  becoming  tedious,  was 
pulled  back  into  his  chair  by  his  nearest  neighbour.  Dean  Blunt 
and  Archdeacon  Chasuble  found  themselves  side  by  side,  and 
entered  into  cheerful  conversation,  neither  seeming  to  remember 
their  recent  conflict,  nor  to  have  the  least  intention  to  "  abandon 
the  Church,"  a  phrase  which  apparently  had  no  particular  meaning, 
but  was  kept  ready  for  use  whenever  the  occasion  required  it. 
Archdeacon  Jolly  inquired  across  the  table  of  Mr.  Kidds,  who  was 
eating  a  muffin,  whether  he  had  seen  a  pamphlet,  published  by 

&  Co.,  and  entitled,  "Hints  on  the  Easier  Methods  of  Leading 

Captive  Silly  Women :  By  one  who  has  had  Experience  in  the 
Ministry."  Mr.  Kidds  replied,  with  some  asperity,  that  he  knew 
nothing  whatever,  and  desired  to  know  nothing,  of  such  a  book ; 
but  he  had  seen  an  advertisement  of  one  called,  "  Suggestions  for 
a  New  Religion,"  and  had  imagined  that  it  might  perhaps  be  a 
production  of  Archdeacon  Jolly.  Dr.  Critical  asked  Dean  Primitive 
if  he  had  seen  Dr.  Pusey's  recent  observations  in  the  Guardian 
about  the  probable  advent  of  "a  Free  Church,"  and  as  the  Dean 
only  shook  his  head,  proceeded  to  observe,  that  it  was  an  equivocal 
commentary  on  his  supposed  belief  in  the  perpetuity  of  the  Estab- 
lishment, and  showed  what  a  very  clear  idea  he  entertained  of  the 
nature  of  a  Teaching  Church.  Evidently  Dr.  Pusey  thought  that 
it  was  lawful  to  create  a  new  one  any  day  of  the  week.  Dean  Pliable 
said  that  he  had  in  his  pocket  a  tract  which  was  likely  to  assist 
Dr.  Pusey's  "free  church,"  and  could  only  be  the  production  of 
some  very  indiscreet  disciple  of  that  eminent  divine.  Its  title  was 
this:  "Is  Baptism  Necessary  for  a  Christian  Bishop?"  It  seemed 
intended  to  prove  that,  owing  to  the  "careless  administration  of 
the  rite"  in  past  times,  a  large  proportion  of  Anglican  Bishops  had 
probably  been  unbaptized.  It  was  a  very  reckless  and  imprudent 
pamphlet,  and  yet  he  could  not  deny  that  it  contained  some  serious 
and  even  startling  suggestions.  He  would  read  a  passage  or  two 
from  it  while  his  friends  drank  their  tea. 

"Recall  for  a  moment  the  spectacle  of  a  public  baptism  in  many 
of  our  large  parish  churches,  so  late  as  even  twenty  years  ago.  A 
crowd  of  infants,  shrouded  in  caps  and  enveloped  in  flannels,  were 
held  in  the  arms  of  their  nurses  round  a  font  which  had  nothing  in 
it  but  a  small  basin  of  water.  The  clergyman,  standing  on  the 
other  side  of  the  font,  spirted  a  few  drops  of  the  fluid  from  the  tip 


102  THE    COMEDY    OF    CONVOCATION 

of  one  finger  at  each  baby  in  turn,  or  rather  at  the  heap  of  clothea 
under  which  it  was  hidden.  It  was  a  hundred  to  one  that  the  rite 
was  not  administered  in  a  single  case,  and  a  thousand  to  one  that 
it  was  not  administered  in  all.  Moreover,  it  was  almost  certain 
that  there  was  no  sufficient  connection  between  the  sacramental, 
words  and  the  pouring  of  the  water,  even  supposing  that  the  water 
had  really  flowed  on  the  head  of  a  single  child.  Whole  generations 
of  clergymen  in  the  English  Church, — Puritans,  Evangelicals,  or 
worldlings, — all  nearly  equally  indifferent  about  the  administration 
of  a  sacrament  to  which  they  attached  very  little  importance,  had 
unconsciously  conspired  together  to  breed  an  unbaptized  population 
in  these  islands.  The  fact  is  simply  appalling  in  its  effect  upon 
our  ecclesiastical  status.  An  unbaptized  man  could  neither  receive 
nor  confer  ordination." 

Dean  Pompous  entreated  that  they  might  hear  no  more  of  a  tract 
so  pestilent  and  revolutionary ;  but  Dean  Primitive  observed  that, 
only  thirteen  years  ago,  it  had  happened  to  himself  to  witness  an 
utterly  invalid  baptism  in  one  of  the  churches  in  Hampshire,  and 
that  he  had  great  difficulty  in  obtaining  the  repetition  of  the  in- 
effectual ceremony.  Dr.  Easy  also  remarked  that  his  predecessor 
in  the  living  which  he  held  in  the  country  always  baptized  the 
children  with  what  he  himself  called  "a  damp  finger;"  and  he  had 
heard  of  a  large  church  in  a  manufacturing  town  where,  during  a 
whole  winter,  water  was  never  used  at  all,  because,  as  the  Vicar 
observed  in  explanation,  "it  was  too  cold  for  the  babies."  Here 
the  clergy  began  to  leave  their  chairs,  as  if  they  found  the  subject 
distasteful,  and  ascended  to  the  drawing-room.  Dean  Primitive 
and  Archdeacon  Chasuble  alone  remained,  apparently  with  design. 
"'Chasuble,"  said  his  friend,  "I  am  sick  at  heart.  What  answer 
can  be  made  to  Blunt  and  the  Professor?  If  our  Orders  are  a 
delusion,  what  are  we  ?  "  "  Alas  !  my  friend,"  replied  the  Arch- 
deacon, "  I  begin  to  suspect  that  the  validity  of  our  Orders  is  a 
much  less  important  question  than  we  had  supposed.  There  are 
other  doubts  which  affect  me  more  painfully."  Silence  ensued  for 
several  minutes,  when  the  Archdeacon,  rising  with  a  deep  sigh 
from  his  chair,  said :  "  Primitive,  let  us  go  up  stairs." 

The  clergy  had  resumed  their  seats,  awaiting  the  renewal  of  the 
debate,  when  the  Rev.  Athanasius  Benedict,  a  young  man  cf  pleasant 


IN  THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH.  103 

aspect,  but  wearing  the  robe  of  a  monk,  advanced  into  the  room 
with  quick  step  and  eager  manner.     Apologising  to  Dr.  Easy  for  the 
lateness  of  his  arrival,  he  explained  that  he  had  only  that  evening 
reached  London  from  Rome,  whither  he  had  been  to  consult  the 
most  famous  theologians  on  several  points  of  great  interest.    (Some 
of  the  clergy  laughed,  and  Mr.  Kidds  exclaimed,  "truly  disgusting.") 
He  had  seen  the  Pope  for  a  few  moments,  and  received  his  blessing  ; 
but  his  Holiness  declined  to  admit  him  to  a  second  interview,  which 
he  very  much  regretted,  as  he  was  anxious  to  convince  him  of  the 
catholicity  of  the  English  Church.    However,  he  had  seen  Cardinal 
Barnabo  at  his  official  residence,  who  received  him  courteously,  and 
seemed  disposed  to  listen  to  his  questions ;  but  unfortunately  an 
oriental  bishop  happened  to  come  in  on  business,  and  his  Eminence 
requested  him  to  call  another  day.     He  had  intended  to  ask  him 
whether  there  was  any  Catholic  precedent  by  which  an  individual 
might  appoint  himself  superior  of  a  religious  order  of  his  own  creation, 
without  having  made  any  previous  noviciate ;  whether,  if  his  bishop 
was  an  ignorant  heretic,  he  might  treat  his  foolish  opposition  with 
contempt ;  whether,  in  case  of  necessity,  he  might  teach  his  Church, 
supposing  his  Church  to  be  incapable  of  teaching  him;  whether,  if 
he  should  be  excommunicated  by  all  his  monks,  and  excommunicate 
them  all  in  return,  it  was  his  duty  or  theirs  to  pay  the  debts  of  the 
monastery;    whether — (Dr.  Easy  here  observed  somewhat  stiffly, 
that  the  subject  under  consideration  at  that  meeting,  was   the 
character  of   English  Orders,  and   though  it  had  perhaps  been 
sufficiently  discussed,  if  the  reverend  gentleman  desired  to  make 
any  remarks,  he  presumed  the  assembly  would  hear  him.      He 
trusted,  however,  that  he  would  endeavour  to  be  brief.     Without 
a  moment's   hesitation,  and   looking  straight   before   him  with  a 
piercing  glance,  the  Rev.  Athanasius  Benedict  spoke  as  follows  :•) 

He  had  sometimes  been  tempted  to  doubt  the  integrity  of  English 
Orders,  but  he  had  put  away  the  sinful  thought  as  a  snare  of  the 
enemy.  It  was  his  rule  not  to  listen  to  any  suggestions  tending  to 
disparage  the  Anglo-Catholic  Church.  He  would  admit,  however, 
that  if  Christendom  refused  to  recognise  the  English  clergy  as 
priests,  there  was  some  excuse  for  the  error.  The  clergy  themselves 
were  responsible  for  it.  As  long  as  they  were  incessantly  "  marry- 
ing and  giving  in  marriage,"  so  as  to  be  known  to  the  world  chiefly 


104  THE   COMEDY    OF   CONVOCATION 

as  types  of  uxorious  effeminacy,  their  priesthood  would  be  rejected 
as  a  fable.  The  world  had  not  been  converted  by  married  priests, 
and  never  would  be.  Their  example  would  always  do  more  to  en- 
courage worldliness  than  their  teaching  to  restrain  vice.  But  if  it 
shocked  the  purest  instincts  of  the  soul  to  see  a  priest  entangled  in 
wedlock,  what  language  could  do  justice  to  the  revolting  spectacle 
of  a  wedded  bishop  ?  The  primitive  Christians,  he  was  persuaded, 
would  have  recoiled  with  horror  from  such  an  object.  (Dean  Pompous, 
crimson  with  indignation,  protested  that  he  would  leave  the  room 
if  the  young  man  repeated  such  disgraceful  language.)  Oh!  he 
was  aware  that  such  views  were  out  of  harmony  with  the  actual 
spirit  of  the  English  Church,  but  it  was  necessary  to  reform  that 
spirit,  and  by  God's  help  they  would  do  it.  A  Gregory  VII.  would 
be  raised  up  in  their  communion,  to  purify  the  defiled  courts  of  the 
temple.  St.  Paul,  who  was  a  greater  authority  than  the  Church  of 
England,  had  delivered  his  testimony  against  a  married  clergy. 
"  It  is  good  for  man,"  he  said,  speaking  even  of  the  laity,  "not  to 
touch  a  woman."  And  the  Master  whom  St.  Paul  served,  had 
taught  that  there  was  a  special  choir  in  heaven,  clothed  with  its 
own  peculiar  glory,  and  composed  of  those  only  "who  had  not 
defiled  themselves  with  women."  What  deadness  of  heart  or  blunt- 
ness  of  intellect  could  resist  the  arguments  of  the  Apostle  :  "  He  that 
is  with  a  wife  is  solicitous  for  the  things  of  the  world,  how  he  may 
please  his  wife !  "  Why  should  they  receive  this  divine  admoni- 
tion as  if  it  were  addressed  to  others,  but  had  no  application  to 
themselves?  What  had  they  gained  by  despising  it?  What 
better  illustration  could  the  world  give  of  its  truth,  or  of  the 
shameful  incongruity  of  a  married  priesthood,  than  that  latest  in- 
vention of  connubial  repose,  an  English  parsonage-house,  or  that 
triumphant  device  of  luxurious  ease,  an  English  Episcopal  palace? 
(Here  Dean  Pompous  abruptly  left  the  room.  Some  of  the  clergy 
inquired  in  whispers  whether  Mr.  Benedict  should  be  allowed  to 
continue.    It  seemed  to  be  agreed  that  he  should,  and  he  did.) 

It  was  only,  he  said,  (watching  with  a  smile  the  retreating  figure 
of  Dean  Pompous,)  by  taking  to  pieces  the  idea  of  a  married  priest- 
hood, and  viewing  it  in  its  detached  phenomena,  that  one  could 
hope  to  realise  its  grotesque  character.  He  would  say  nothing  of  it 
as  a  confession  of  feeble  and  maudlin  worldliness,  nor  of  its  glaring 
inconsistency  with  all  that  was  great,  and  noble,  and  fruitful,  in 


IN   THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH.  105 

Christian  annals.  It  did  not  deserve  to  be  treated  so  seriously. 
But  he  would  come  to  familiar  details.  For  example ;  a  sacerdotal 
wedding-tour  was  a  thing  which  struck  the  fancy  as  unique.  To 
appreciate  such  an  expedition  fully,  they  must  consider  it  as  the 
last  of  a  long  series  of  preliminary  incidents,  all  belonging  to  what 
was  sometimes  playfully  called  the  "  spoony"  type.  During  this 
period,  the  enamoured  pastor  might  be  contemplated  as  alternating 
between  thrilling  sermons  on  "taking  up  the  cross,"  and  rapturous 
interviews  with  the  lady  of  his  love.  One  moment  he  might  be 
seen  at  the  altar,  and  the  next  in  the  boudoir;  now  discriminating  the 
claims  of  two  equally  fascinating  doctrines,  and  a  little  later  adjust- 
ing the  merits  of  two  equally  adorable  bonnets.  But  he  would  not 
pursue  the  subject  in  its  various  details.  He  would  only  observe, 
that  perhaps  the  most  ardent  admirer  of  hymeneal  rites  would 
cheerfully  admit,  that  he  could  not  conceive  St.  Paul  or  St.  John 
starting  on  a  nuptial  tour,  accompanied  by  the  "latest  fashions" 
from  Athens  or  Ephesus,  and  the  graceful  brides  whom  they  were 
destined  to  adorn.  They  would  feel  that  Christianity  itself  could 
not  survive  such  a  vision  as  that.  Nor  could  the  imagination 
picture,  in  its  wildest  mood,  the  majestic  adversary  of  the  Arian 
emperor  attended  on  his  flight  up  the  Nile  by  Mistress  Athanasius; 
nor  St.  John  Chrysostom  escorted  in  his  wanderings  through. 
Phrygia  by  the  wife  of  his  bosom,  arrayed  in  a  wreath  of  orange 
blossoms.  Would  Ethelbert  have  become  a  Christian,  if  St. 
Augustine  had  introduced  to  him  his  lady  and  her  bridesmaids? 
No,  the  instincts  of  man  could  not  tolerate  the  Apostolical  Succession 
taking  its  recreation  in  a  honeymoon. 

For  his  own  part,  moved  by  the  thought  of  what  the  great 
preachers  of  the  gospel  had  ever  been,  in  every  age,  he  was  accus- 
tomed to  say  to  himself,  whenever  he  met  a  clergyman  with  a  woman 
under  his  arm :  "  There  is  a  gentleman  who  would  certainly  not 
have  consented  to  be  ordained,  if  he  had  thought  there  was  the 
faintest  risk  of  his  losing  by  the  transaction."  He  knew  it  was 
sometimes  said, — for  men  were  ingenious  in  apologising  for  their 
infirmities,  and  especially  for  those  to  which  they  were  most  inclined 
— that  such  priests  might  be  models  to  their  flocks  of  domestic 
virtue.  Would  that  they  were  always  even  that !  But  the  world 
expected  priests  to  be  models  of  something  higher.  There  were 
plenty  of  people  to  serve  as  models  of  domestic  virtue.     He  gladly 


106  THE   COMEDY    OF   CONVOCATION 

admitted  that  there  were  in  the  English  Church  worthy  husbands 
and  fathers  of  families  ;  but  where  were  the  successors  of  the  Baptist, 
of  St.  Stephen,  or  St.  James?  Alas  !  not  in  their  own  communion, 
though  they  abounded  elsewhere.  Only  the  other  day,  afj  he  came 
through  France,  he  read  in  a  French  journal  the  martyrdom  of  nine 
French  bishops  and  priests  at  once  in  Corea.  Did  any  one  suppose 
that  if  they  had  been  married,  they  would  have  coveted  the  crown  of 
martvrdom?  "He  that  is  married,"  said  the  apostle,  "is  solicitous 
for  the  things  of  the  world;''  and  for  that  reason  there  were  no 
Anglican  missionaries  in  Corea.  There  never  would  be  any,  unless 
it  happened  to  become  quite  safe  to  go  there.  Eleven  Colonial 
bishops,  they  learned  from  the  Times,  were  in  England  about  a 
year  ago,  having  left  their  distant  sees  to  take  care  of  themselves; 
a  new  proof  of  the  soft  and  luxurious  temper  which  marriage 
fostered  in  the  clergy. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  enumerate  all  the  evils  which  flowed 
from  this  source.  It  was  hardly  too  much  to  say  that  in  their  own 
day,  as  in  past  times,  the  imposition  of  hands  by  an  English  bishop 
was  simply  an  indication  of  his  opinion  that  the  candidate 
before  him  had  an  undoubted  vocation  for  matrimony.  It  was  sad 
to  be  obliged  to  confess  that  it  had  been  so  in  their  Church  from 
the  beginning.  As  Erasmus  said,  marriage  was  the  only  paradise 
left  to  a  "  reformed  "  Christian.  In  the  theology  of  the  founders  of 
Anglicanism,  Nuptials  and  Orders  were  equivalent  terms ;  but  the 
last  was  only  valued  as  an  introduction  to  the  first.  He  remembered 
a  fact  in  the  life  of  Bishop  Barlow,  a  name  of  evil  omen  for  them, 
which  fitly  inaugurated  the  religious  revolution  of  the  sixteenth 
century.  Five  of  that  prelate's  daughters  married  five  Anglican 
bishops, — no  doubt  with  the  pious  intention  of  keeping  alive  the 
Apostolical  Suc(  ession  in  the  Church  of  England. 

And  it  was  to  be  observed  that  when  a  clergyman  once  married, 
it  seemed  impossible  to  revive  in  him  any  respect  for  continence. 
He  would  marry  every  year,  if  his  wives  would  only  die  fast  enough 
to  allow  him  to  do  so.  St.  Paul  had  said,  speaking  of  a  society 
which  had  just  been  formed  out  of  the  ranks  of  the  heathen:  "a 
bishop  should  be  the  husband  of  one  wife."  He  could  not  possibly 
mean  that  all  bishops  must  be  married  men,  since  he  earnestly 
dissuaded  even  the  devout  laity  from  excepting  the  yoke  of  mar- 
riage.    He  evidently  implied  by  these  words,  that  any  one  who  ha/1 


IN   THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH.  107 

been  married  twice,  even  as  a  heathen  layman,  was  utterly  unwoithy 
ta  become  a  Christian  bishop.  Yet  some  of  their  own  most  credit- 
able bishops,  men  who  had  left  a  name  behind  them,  had  actually 
married  twice  after  they  had  been  raised  to  the  episcopate.  The 
late  Bishop  of  Salisbury  did  so,  and  defended  the  shameful  deed  in 
a  charge  to  his  clergy !  He  took  this  to  be  the  most  stupendous 
fact  in  ecclesiastical  story. 

They  were  perhaps  aware  that  even  in  Eussia,  a  semi-barbarous 
country,  where  a  married  priesthood  was  permitted,  and  where  the 
law  had  hitherto  compelled  every  son  of  a  priest  to  become  a  priest 
himself,  because  nobody  else  would  accept  the  office,  he  was  abso- 
lutely prohibited  from  marrying  after  he  was  ordained.  That  was 
too  much  even  for  Russian  insensibility.  But  he  perceived  that 
some  of  the  company  were  becoming  impatient,  and  would  detain 
them  no  longer.  .He  had  come  there  to  deliver  his  testimony,  and 
it  was  a  relief  to  his  conscience  to  have  done  so.  He  had  not  heard 
the  previous  debate  on  their  Orders,  but  perhaps  there  was  no 
more  formidable  argument  against  them  than  one  which  had  often 
been  addressed  to  himself  during  his  travels.  "If  your  clergy 
were  true  priests,"  he  had  been  told,  "  they  would  display  the  super- 
natural virtues  which  accompany  a  divine  vocation.  But  they  are 
simply  fathers  of  families,  like  any  other  laymen.  The  grace  of 
Orders  does  not  appear  in  them,  therefore  they  are  not  validly  or- 
dained." He  believed  he  was  not  deficient  in  courage,  but  he  nevei 
heard  this  argument  without  trying  to  change  the  conversation. 
It  was  not,  however,  in  his  nature  weakly  to  despair.  The  day 
would  come,  and  he  fondly  believed  that  it  was  at  hand,  when  the 
reproach  of  a  married  clergy  would  be  taken  away  from  them. 
The  first  Anglican  Council,  to  which  all  hearts  were  now  looking 
forward,  would  prohibit  sacerdotal  nuptials.  When  that  auspicious 
day  arrived,  he  should  no  longer  blush  to  meet  his  Roman  and 
Russian  friends,  for  he  should  be  able  to  tell  them  that  he  had 
judged  the  Holy  Anglican  Church  more  wisely  than  they,  and  had 
not  erred  in  predicting  the  glorious  resurrection  reserved  for  her, 
and  the  triumphant  demonstration  of  the  validity  of  her  Orders. 

(For  some  moments  no  one  seemed  inclined  to  reply  to  Mr. 
Benedict,  who  was  evidently  regarded  by  the  company  as  a  very 
obnoxious  person.    At  length  Mr.  Kidds  arose,  and  shaking  himself 


108  THE   COMEDY   OF   CONVOCATION 

free  from  the  grasp  of  two  neighbours,  who  tried  forcibly  to  hold 
him  down,  spoke  thus  :) 

He  presumed  that  Mr.  Benedict  was  a  Roman  priest  in  disguise. 
(Mr.  Benedict  smiled.)  But  he  would  meet  him  face  to  face,  and 
confound  him  with  the  sword  of  the  Spirit.  He  wished  to  deprive 
the  clergy  of  the  evangelical  solaces  of  domestic  life,  and  quoted 
Paul  in  defence  of  his  unholy  project.  For  his  part,  he  doubted 
not  that  Paul,  who  was  a  spiritual  man,  corrected  his.,  error  on  the 
subject  of  matrimony,  which  might  be  attributed  to  his  Jewish 
education,  or,  perhaps,  to  the  fact  that  he  was  by  natural  dis- 
position averse  to  the  female  sex.  In  his  judgment,  there  was  not 
to  be  seen  on  this  planet  an  object  so  melancholy  and  repugnant 
as  a  Eoman  priest.  He  never  met  one  without  feeling — well,  he 
could  hardly  express  what  he  felt 

MR.  BENEDICT  would  ask  permission  to  express  it  for  him. 
He  felt  probably  how  deplorable  must  be  the  corruptions  of  that 
Church  which  preferred  mortification  to  sensuality,  the  shadow  of 
the  Cross  to  the  glare  of  the  world,  the  example  of  St.  Paul  to  that 
of  Cranrner,  and  a  life  of  devotion  to  sacerdotal  duties  to  the  sweet 
attractions  of  the  drawing-room  or  the  lofty  delights  of  the  nursery. 

MR.  KIDDS  (who  did  not  seem  quite  sure  that  that  was  exactly 
what  he  meant)  replied,  with  a  scornful  wave  of  the  hand,  that  he 
had  been  in  Rome!  He  repeated  (here  he  raised  his  voice  to  a 
very  high  pitch)  that  he  had  been  in  Rome,  and  there  he  had 
witnessed  the  pernicious  effects  of  this  unscriptural  avoidance  of 
matrimony.  He  had  watched  in  the  Corso  and  on  the  Pincio  those 
odious  Franciscans,  degraded  beings  with  naked  feet  and  a  rope 
round  their  waists,  dirty  and  repulsive  victims  of  a  grovelling  and 
humiliating  superstition.  That  shocking  spectacle  had  filled  him 
with  devout  thankfulness  for  the  blessed  institutions  of  his  own 
beloved  Church  and  country,  and  had  satisfied  him  that  an 
unmarried  clergy  must  necessarily  be  examples  of  crime  and 
sources  of  corruption.  He  knew  nothing  more  worthy  of  praise  in 
the  bishops  of  their  Protestant  community  than  the  example  which 
they  gave  in  this  matter.  He  rejoiced  to  believe  that  the  unnatural 
spectacle  of  an  unwedded  bishop  had  never  been  seen,  or  very 


IN   THi:   ENGLISH   CHUECH.  109 

rarely,  in  their  scriptural  Church.  Long  might  they  continue  to 
use  their  "  Christian  liberty,"  as  the  late  Bishop  Denison  powerfully 
observed,  and  to  adorn  the  land  with  a  comely  and  godly  offspring. 
This  was  the  prayer  of  a  truly  Evangelical  clergy,  and  he  presumed 
that  here  at  least  the  Puseyites  were  of  one  mind  with  them,  since 
he  knew  that  Dr.  Primitive  and  Archdeacon  Chasuble  had  both  of 
them  large  families,  and  he  believed  that  they  both  had  daughters 
married  to  clergymen. 

MR.  BENEDICT,  (whose  face  was  illuminated  with  smiles.) 
trusted  Mr.  Kidds  would  bear  with  him  while  he  said  a  word  on 
behalf  of  those  Roman  monks  whose  dress  and  doctrines  were 
equally  distasteful  to  gentlemen  of  his  views.  He  was  not  the 
advocate  of  Rome,  and  believed  that  it  was  the  sublime  destiny  of 
the  Anglican  Church,  in  spite  of  present  shortcomings,  to  restore  both 
the  Latin  and  Greek  communion  to  the  perfection  which  they  had 
lost,  and  to  admit  both,  after  due  instruction  and  correction,  to  the 
privilege  of  fellowship  with  herself.  His  poor  prayers  would  never 
cease  to  be  offered,  that  both  the  Eastern  and  "Western  Churches 
might  be  remodelled  after  the  pattern  of  the  English.  But  he 
could  not  admit  that,  because  these  less  favoured  churches  had  at 
present  the  misfortune  to  be  separated  from  their  own,  therefore 
they  contained  nothing  worthy  to  be  esteemed  or  imitated.  The 
Roman  monks,  with  many  of  whom  he  was  well  acquainted,  led  a 
life  of  prayer,  mortification,  and  good  works.  It  was  true  they 
laboured  under  what  an  Englishman  would  consider  disadvantages. 
They  had  not  read  Colenso  on  the  "  Pentateuch,"  nor  the  Oxford 
"  Essays  and  Reviews,"  nor  the  discussions  of  Convocation  of  the  two 
Provinces  of  York  and  Canterbury,  nor  even  the  sermons  of  Dr. 
Elliot,  Dean  of  Bristol.  They  did  not  take  in  the  Times  or  the 
Saturday  Review.  They  had  never  heard  of  Dr.  Lushington,  nor  of 
the  Court  of  Arches;  nor  had  they  sat  under  Dr.  dimming,  nor 
listened  to  the  balmy  eloquence  of  Samuel,  Bishop  of  Oxford,  and 
Lord  High  Almoner  to  the  Queen.  With  all  these  disadvantages, 
it  were  unjust  to  expect  that  the  Roman  monks  should  know  much 
of  "  modern  enlightenment."  Moreover,  the  branch  of  the  great 
Franciscan  family  which  was  found  in  southern  Italy  and  Sicily, 
was  mainly  recruited  from  the  humbler  orders.  Like  the  fishermen 
of  the  Lake  of  Galilee,  they  were  poor  men  ministering  to  the  poor. 


110  THE   COMEDY   OF   CONVOCATION 

Their  dress  was  sometimes  ragged,  but  he  supposed  the  wardrobe 
of  the  Apostles  was  also  imperfectly  furnished :  and  that  if  St. 
Paul  should  walk  into  the  great  court  of  Christ  Church,  or  dare 
to  invade  the  precincts  of  Balliol,  in  such  guise  as  he  proba.bly  pre- 
sented after  one  of  his  weary  journeys,  he  would  be  cast  out  as  an 
obtrusive  mendicant,  and  committed  to  the  custody  of  a  policeman. 
It  was  true  that  he  would  probably  find  something  to  say  which 
would  startle  his  delicate  reprovers ;  and  it  was  shocking  to  think 
that  he  might  even  be  tempted  to  call  the  Master  of  Balliol  a 
"whited  wall."  He  sometimes  used  language  of  that  sort,  in  spite 
of  his  defective  toilette,  and  got  into  trouble  in  consequence. 
Again,  St.  John  the  Baptist  was  not  a  "  well-dressed  man."  Yet 
of  all  that  were  born  of  woman  "  none  was  greater  than  he."  What 
did  Mr.  Kidds  suppose  would  be  the  fate  of  that  great  Preacher  of 
the  Desert,  if  he  presented  himself  at  the  door  of  any  Episcopal 
palace  in  England  ?  Hardly  would  he  be  suffered  to  approach 
the  majestic  presence  of  "  My  Lord,"  much  less  of  the  ladies  of  his 
household  ;  and  if,  through  the  compliance  of  an  awe-struck  menial, 
he  crossed  the  solemn  threshold,  it  would  only  be  to  hear  the 
justly-offended  bishop  cry  aloud  to  him  from  the  top  of  his  palatial 
staircase:  "Go  away,  sir,  and  never  presume  to  present  yourself 
here  again  in  that  disgusting  attire." 

O  DO 

Well,  there  had  been  Baptists  in  every  age,  though  of  a  less 
lofty  stature,  and  the  Franciscans  were  among  the  present  heirs  of 
the  great  Preacher  of  the  Desert.  Had  he  any  representatives  in 
the  Anglican  Church?  He  would  consent  to  receive  the  answer 
from  Mr.  Kidds. 

DR.  VIEWY  must  express  his  deep  regret  that  Mr.  Benedict 
and  Mr.  Kidds  had  introduced  a  new  and  painful  element  in  their 
debate,  by  attempting  to  establish  a  contrast  between  the  English 
and  the  foreign  clergy.  He  thought  such  personalities  imprudent ; 
because,  no  doubt,  if  Protestant  clergymen  could  know  what  the 
Roman  clergy  thought  of  them,  they  would  not  feel  exhilarated  by 
the  information.  As  an  illustration  of  this  truth  he  would  repeat, 
for  the  benefit  of  Mr.  Benedict  and  Mr.  Kidds,  a  description  of  the 
High-Church  clergy  it  had  been  his  fate  to  overhear,  some  months 
ago,  while  travelling  in  a  railway  carriage  on  the  continent.  Two 
Roman  Catholic  priests,   of  cultivated  mind  and  manners,  were 


IN   THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH  111 

comparing  their  experiences  acquired  during  a  holiday  tour,  frojn 
which  they  were  returning  to  their  work.     One  of  them  had  been 
in  England,  and  spoke  with  warmth  of  the  kindness  and  the  hospi- 
tality which  he  had  enjoyed  at  Oxford  and  elsewhere.    He  regretted 
that  he  had  found  but  little  else  that  he  could  praise.    What  struck 
him  most,  he  said,  about  the  Anglican  clergy,  was  a  singular  want 
of  definiteness  of  character.     Their  very   appearance,   modes   of 
speech,  and  perpetual  uncertainty  and  self-correction,  was  suggest- 
ive of  an  attempt  to  play  a  part  for  which  they  had  not  the  neces- 
sary gifts.    He  should  not  like  to  judge  unkindly,  but  they  had,  as 
a  class,  a  dreadfully  unsupernatural  look.    You  were  always  tempted 
to  think:    "These  are  men  who  have  never  received  the  Sacra- 
ments, and  in  whose  face  there  is  no  reflection  of  the  Sacramental 
Presence."     (He  had  made  a  note  of  this  expression,  which,  he  con- 
fessed, he  did  not  exactly  comprehend.)    In  spite  of  studied  gravity, 
there  was  literally  nothing  in  them  of  the  Christian  priest.     They 
might  be  moral  gentlemen,  but  no  one  would  take  them  for  priests. 
He  saw  a  few  who  wore  a  kind  of  Koman  collar,  and  whose  misc- 
en-scene  deceived  you  for  a  moment ;  but  when  you  came  to  look 
more  closely,  there  was  a  singular  consciousness  in  their  expres- 
sion, a  furtive   glancing   out  of  the    corners  of  the   eyes,  which 
revealed  too  plainly  their  anxiety  about  the   success  of  the  dis- 
guise.    He  got  so  used  to  this  expression  in  a  week  or  so,  that  he 
could  detect  it  in  a  moment.     It  had  a  very  droll  effect.     As  to 
their  inner  life  and  sentiments,  they  seemed  divided  into  two  dis- 
tinctly opposite  classes.     Both,   he  believed,   were  of  exemplary 
morals,  but  one  was  as  humble  as  their  unfortunate  position  allowed 
them  to  be,  and   excused   their  reluctant   isolation  with  a  meek 
sorrow  and  hesitation  which  were  really  touching.     The  other  class 
displayed  a  self-complacent  conceit,  and,  he  was  obliged  to  add,  a 
spirit  of  malice,  which,  in  his  own  experience,  was  quite  without  a 
parallel.     Their   hatred    of    the    Catholic    Church   was    positively 
frightful.     They  appeared  to  have  no  fear,  no  tenderness,  and  no 
modesty.     He  had  observed  that  they  would  often  go  out  of  their 
way   to   express    their   reverence,    generally  in   extravagant    and 
ludicrous  terms,  for  the  "Eastern  Church,"  or  any  of  the  Oriental 
sects,  and  even  sometimes  for  the  Nestorians,  while  the  evil  spirit 
within  them  seemed  to  torment  them  violently  whenever  the  Holy 
See  was. named,  and  forced  them  to  display  the pravitas  hceretieorum. 


112  THE   COMEDY   OF   CONVOCATION 

These  were  men  who,  if  the  Church  of  England  perished  to-morrow., 
■would  invent  some  new  sect  of  their  own,  rather  than  enter  the 
Catholic  Church.  They  could  reign  as  little  kings  in  a  sect,  and 
follow  their  own  conceits;  whereas,  in  the  Church,  they  must  be 
content  to  serve  and  obey.  But  this  they  would  never  do,  for  the 
spirit  of  obedience  was  not  in  them.  Though  affecting  the  lan- 
guage of  Catholics,  they  were  more  inveterately  Protestant  in  feel- 
ing and  temper  than  any  of  their  co-religionists.  He  was  inclined 
to  think,  however,  that  the  other  class  was  more  numerous,  and  of 
their  conversion  good  hopes  might  be  entertained,  though  it  was 
inexpressibly  sad  to  see  them  wasting  their  lives  in  various  de- 
lusions, pursuing  shadows  as  if  they  were  realities,  and  running 
the  risk  of  being  surprised  by  death  before  they  had  effected  their 
reconciliation  with  Holy  Church. 

The  conversation,  continued  Dr.  Viewy,  lasted  nearly  an  hour ; 
but  perhaps  he  had  quoted  enough  of  it  to  justify  his  remark  that 
personalities  were  imprudent,  and  might  provoke  an  unpleasant 
retort.  He  thought,  too,  that  neither  Mr.  Benedict  nor  Mr.  Kidds 
could  entertain  any  doubt  as  to  the  answer  which  Koman  priests 
would  give  to  the  question  proposed  by  Dr.  Easy:  "are  English 
Orders  human  or  divine  ?  " 

(The  company  now  began  to  break  up.  Mr.  Benedict,  still 
smiling,  excused  himself  for  retiring  to  his  lodgings  on  the 
ground  that  "he  had  the  office  of  Vespers  to  recite,"  by  which  he 
was  understood  to  mean  that  he  was  going  to  read  the  lively 
Service  which  begins  with  "Dearly  beloved,"  and  ends  with 
"  Lighten  our  darkness."  Dean  Primitive  and  Archdeacon  Chasuble 
walked  away  in  total  silence,  arm  in  arm.  Several  times  their  lips 
parted,  as  if  they  were  going  to  speak,  but  they  separated  at  the 
door  of  the  former,  with  a  warm  grasp,  but  without  having  ex- 
changed a  word.  Mr.  Kidds  stood  at  the  door  for  several  minutes, 
looking  eagerly  down  the  street,  apparently  desirous  to  give  Mr. 
Benedict  ample  time  to  get  well  out  of  sight.  Others  would  have 
followed,  but  Dr.  Easy  proposed  to  move  again  to  the  dining-room, 
and  refresh  themselves  with  something  more  generous  than  tea. 
This  put  a  stop  to  further  defections.  The  company  drew  round 
the  fire,  and  some  lighted  cisrars.  The  conversation  was  resumed 
with  fresh  animation.) 


IN  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH.  113 

DR.  EASY,  who  did  not  smoke,  commenced  by  observing  how 
very  droll  it  was  to  see  two  such  men  as  Benedict  and  Kidds  recog- 
nised ministers  of  the  same  Church.  It  would  be  hard  to  say  what 
they  believed  in  common.  As  to  Benedict,  who  really  seemed  a 
good  fellow  at  the  bottom,  in  spite  of  his  exorbitant  vanity  and 
self-confidence,  he  would  venture  a  wager  that  before  six  months 
were  over  he  would  either  be  married,  or  a  Catholic, — or  relapse 
into  the  ordinary  routine  of  English  clerical  life.  The  atmosphere 
of  their  National  Church  would  soon  prove  fatal  to  monkery.  Pro- 
testant sisterhoods  might  live  and  thrive  in  it,  just  as  they  did  in 
Lutheran  Prussia,  because  women  would  always  worship  the 
spiritual  guides  whom  they  chose  for  themselves,  and  consent  to  be 
ruled  by  them.  The  very  generosity  of  their  nature  exposed  them, 
as  St.  Paul  seemed  to  intimate,  to  be  "led  captive'^  in  this  way. 
Ke  had  heard  without  surprise,  that  the  Catholic  bishops,  who  dis- 
played in  many  things  marvellous  good  sense,  never  suffered 
religious  communities  to  choose  their  own  chaplains,  and  always 
changed  the  latter  every  two  or  three  years.  He  had  no  doubt  this 
was  a  wise  precaution.  But  whether  Benedict  consoled  himself 
with  matrimony  or  not,  poor  Kidds,  unfortunately  for  his  own 
peace,  was  already  married,  and  his  wife  was  such  a  shrew,  that  he 
could  not  comprehend  his  enthusiasm  about  nuptial  joys,  unless  it 
was  a  pious  fiction  designed  to  soothe  his  irritable  spouse.  Primi- 
tive and  Chasuble,  he  was  afraid,  had  passed  an  unpleasant  evening, 
but  they  would  probably  get  up  in  the  morning  none  the  worse  for 
it.  The  oddest  thing  about  them,  and  others  of  their  class,  was 
that  they  seemed  to  exult  in  their  regrets  and  to  revel  in  their 
miseries.  Yet  if  they  believed  what  they  professed,  and  he  was 
sure  they  thought  they  did,  they  ought  to  be  crushed  under  the 
weight  of  their  own  convictions ;  but  there  was  a  placidity  about 
their  perennial  lamentations  which  made  one  suspect  that  their  trials 
were  a  luxury  which  they  would  be  sorry  to  part  with.  What 
puzzled  him  most  about  them  was  this,  that  while  they  abhorred 
what  the  Reformers  taught,  none  of  the  clergy  accepted  more 
cordially  what  they  did.  Even  Kidds,  poor  foolish  ranter,  as  he 
was,  could  give  them  a  lesson  in  consistency.  So  could  their  pre- 
decessors, in  the  comparatively  moderate  High-Church  schools, 
which  had  existed,  on  a  much  smaller  scale,  at  former  periods. 
The  learned  Bramhall  warmly  protested  that  he  did. not  "  unchurch." 


114  THE   COMEDY   OF   CONVOCATION 

the  Swiss  and  German  communities,  so  little  sympathy  had  lie  with 
the  modern  Puseyite  doctrine.  There  was  probably  not  a  single 
writer  in  the  first  hundred  years  of  Anglican  history  who  had  not, 
in  equally  decisive  terms,  identified  himself  with  the  work  of  the 
continental  Protestants,  in  spite  of  occasional  protests  of  a  very  mild 
character,  which  had  no  meaning,  and  were  not  intended  to  have 
any.  Long  after,  Reginald  Heber,  one  of  their  most  respected  pre- 
lates, used  officially  the  same  language,  and  even  made  a  sort  of 
public  boast  that  he  had  received  communion  from  the  Lutheran 
clergy,  and  was  ready  to  do  so  again  whenever  the  opportunity 
offered.  The  most  conspicuous  High-Churchmen  whom  their  com- 
munity had  produced, — even  such  men  as  Laud,  Leslie,  Thorndike, 
and  others, — never,  he  believed,  said  anything  against  the  work  or 
hostile  to  the  persons  of  the  Reformers.  Their  principles  did  not 
require  it.  It  was  reserved  for  men  of  their  own  day,  pressed  by 
the  exigencies  of  their  theory,  either  openly  to  revile  the  founders 
of  their  Church,  or  quietly  to  ignore  them.  Yet  it  was  hard  to  see 
how  theologians  whose  own  teaching,  as  the  Puseyites  were  obliged 
to  maintain,  was  a  tissue  of  heresies,  could  found  a  new  branch  of 
the  Catholic  Church,  or  claim  to  be  the  heirs  of  the  Catholic  priest- 
hood. Either  the  Reformers  were  doctors  and  evangelists,  and 
derived  their  orders  and  their  mission  directly  from  heaven ;  or  they 
were  impostors  and  heresiarchs,  who  merited  the  pillory  rather  than 
a  "  Martyrs'  Memorial." 

DEAN  PLIABLE  did  not  think,  with  deference  to  his  friend, 
that  they  were  either  one  or  the  other.  They  were  simply  men 
of  great  vigour  and  energy,  ridding  themselves  slowly,  from  the 
nature  of  the  case,  of  previous  errors,  and  adopting  finally  certain 
opinions  according  to  the  influences  brought  to  bear  upon  them,  and 
even  the  accident  of  local  circumstance.  Bucer  had  probably 
more  to  do  with  the  ultimate  shape  of  Anglican  doctrine  than  all 
the  English  Reformers  together ;  and  as  to  the  question  of  Orders, 
their  own  language  proved  how  little  importance  they  attached  to 
it.  It  was  a  mere  chance  that  they  finally  adopted,  on  any  point, 
one  set  of  views  rather  than  another.  They  would  probably  have 
been  Presbyterians,  if  they  could  have  followed  their  own  convic- 
tions ;  but  no  Tudor  would  have  tolerated  such  a  form  of  discipline, 
and  the  monarchial  feeling  of  the  country  was  opposed  to  it.     Ther<?> 


IN   THE    ENGLISH   CHURCH.  115 

was  a  time  when  they  would  have  retained  Mass,  and  then  a  time 
when  they  would  have  regarded  the  Eucharist  just  as  the  Calvinists 
did.  Cranmer  changed  his  creed  half-a-dozen  times,  and  he  doubted 
whether  any  of  the  Reformers,  after  the  death  of  Henry,  knew  cer- 
tainly what  his  own  opinions  were,  or  in  what  direction  he  was 
drifting.  They  were  men,  and  made  the  mistakes  of  men ;  but 
their  mistakes  had  made  England  what  she  was,  and  freed  her  from 
the  trammels  of  ecclesiastical  Christianity.  It  was  childish  to  see 
in  the  Reformation  anything  but  a  purely  human  event,  but  it  was 
one  of  vast  magnitude  in  its  effects  upon  the  destinies  of  man- 
kind; and  he,  for  one,  was  willing  to  accept  its  benefits,  without 
scanning  too  critically  the  character  or  the  motive  of  the  agents  to 
whom  they  owed  them.  No  one  asked,  or  cared  to  know,  what  was 
the  private  life,  much  less  the  private  opinions,  of  a  statesman  who 
introduced  a  good  bill  into  Parliament.  The  Reformers  did  not 
probably  augment  the  sum  of  virtue  in  the  world,  and  might  even 
have  too  rudely  crushed  the  ecclesiastical  and  sacramental  machinery 
by  which  it  had  for  ages  been  fostered ;  but  they  were  apostles  of 
freedom  rather  than  of  virtue,  and  having  done  well  what  they 
aimed  at,  were  not  to  be  blamed  if  they  failed  to  do  what  was 
hardly  their  immediate  object.  Erasmus  and  others  complained 
that  there  was  a  sensible  decay  of  morals  after  the  introduction  of 
Protestantism ;  but,  it  must  be  remembered  in  fairness,  that  men 
had  just  cut  themselves  loose  from  a  vast  number  of  artificial,  but 
potent  restraints,  and  emptied  their  minds  of  ideas  and  principles 
which  had  been  lodged  there  from  infancy.  They  might  well  feel 
a  little  light-headed  at  first.  They  had  flung  out  their  ballast,  and 
were  navigating  an  unknown  sea  without  compass  or  rudder.  The 
whole  process  was  as  purely  human  as  that  by  which  Magna 
Charta  was  won,  or  trial  by  jury,  or  the  right  of  self- taxation,  or  the 
suppression  of  the  Corn  Laws,  or  a  sanitary  bill,  or  a  new  system  of 
sewerage ;  but  this  did  not  diminish  the  value  of  its  results.  It 
was  absurd  to  see  anything  "  divine"  in  it,  from  first  to  last,  and 
that  which  was  not  divine  in  its  origin  could  not  be  so  in  its  effects. 
He  differed  as  widely  from  Kidds  as  from  Chasuble;  he  neither 
respected  the  R-eformers  as  prophets,  nor  defamed  them  as  heretics. 
They  were  men,  neither  much  better  nor  much  worse  than  other 
men,  who  began  a  great  work  without  quite  knowing  what  they 
were  going  to  do,  and  who  were  led,  not  by  angels,  but  sometimes 


116  THE  COMEDY    OF   CONVOCATION 

by  princes  who  would  not  be  disobeyed,  sometimes  by  accident,  and 
most  often  by  one  another.  It  was  hard  to  say  what  some  of  them 
really  believed ;  probably  they  did  not  know  themselves ;  but  of 
one  thing  he  was  quite  certain,  that  in  the  whole  number  there  was 
not  one  who  would  not  frankly  have  admitted,  what  had  been 
abundantly  proved  in  the  discussion  of  that  evening,  that  English 
Orders  were  purely  human. 

THE  PROFESSOR  OF  THEOLOGY,  throwing  the  end  of  his 
cigar  into  the  fire,  said  that  it  would  be  a  great  convenience  to  all 
who  held  office  in  the  English  Church,  if  the  candour  and  good 
sense  of  their  friend  Pliable  were  a  little  more  common.  He  knew 
something  personally  of  the  excessive  awkwardness  of  trying  to 
import,  for  the  sake  of  appearance,  a  quasi-divine  element  into  a 
human  subject.  Whenever  he  found  himself  in  presence  of  his 
class,  composed  invariably  of  the  same  materials, — the  majority 
being  profoundly  indifferent  to  theology  in  general,  while  a  few 
cherished  faintly  certain  Catholic  ideas,  which  they  had  picked  up 
in  books,  and  of  which  he  was  obliged  to  take  account, — he  wished 
that  the  University,  in  appointing  a  Professor  of  Anglican  Theology, 
had  not  thought  it  unnecessary  to  say  what  Anglican  Theology  was.' 
Let  them  suppose  a  body  of  students,  such  as  was  to  be  found  in 
any  Anglican  lecture-room  whatever,  whose  theological  conceptions 
ranged,  to  use  a  mathematical  figure,  from  a  point  to  a  parabolic 
curve,  and  whose  notions  of  Christianity, — moral,  doctrinal,  and 
historical, — were  as  various  and  many-coloured  as  the  patterns  of 
their  waistcoats.  In  front  of  this  motley  group  stood  a  gentleman 
who  was  assumed  to  have  made  up  his  mind,  more  or  less  definitely 
as  to  his  own  views  of  religion,  and  who  received  a  liberal  salary 
to  impart  them  to  others.  He  could  not  conceive  an  object  more 
worthy  of  sympathy  than  the  Professor  in  question.  All  these 
young  men,  the  future  ministers  of  their  National  Church, — some 
because  it  was  likely  to  prove  a  lucrative  profession,  a  few  from  a 
certain  softness  of  character  which  was  akin  to  piety,  many  because 
their  parents  wished  it,  and  more  because  they  were  too  stupid  to 
be  trusted  in  any  other  career, — had  already  received,  without 
knowing  it,  a  sort  of  theological  training.  They  took  with  them 
to  college  the  views  of  their  parents,  or  of  the  clique  in  which 
they  had  lived,  or  of  the  clergyman  who  was  looked  up  to  by  their 


IN  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH.  117 

mothers  and  sisters.  These  various  ideas, — which  they  held  more 
firmly  ij  proportion  to  their  ignorance, — they  naturally  brought 
with  them  to  the  lecture-room;  and  it  was  on  such  tablets  as  these 
that  the  Professor  was  to  write,  if  ho  could,  a  compendium  of 
Anglican  Theology.  He  was  to  be  precise  where  precision  was 
impossible,  dogmatical  where  every  dogma  was  a  subject  of  dispute, 
clear  where  his  own  Church  had  purposely  left  everything  in 
doubt,  and  peremptory  where  even  the  raw  youths  before  him 
knew  that  his  immediate  predecessor  had  been  equally  resolute  in 
the  opposite  sense. 

It  had  happened  to  him  to  be  present  on  one  occasion  at  a  theo- 
logical lecture  in  a  great  Roman  Catholic  college.  The  professor 
of  the  day  had  become  his  friend,  in  consequence  of  a  common  taste 
for  geology.  What  struck  him  about  the  lecture  was  its  marvel- 
lous defmiteness.  The  man  seemed  to  feel  that  he  had  the  great 
living  Church  at  his  side,  and  the  whole  company  of  heaven  at 
his  back.  And  the  attitude  of  the  students  was  quite  as  remark- 
able. There  was  no  more  hesitation  on  their  part  than  on  his. 
One  conviction  ruled  all  those  free  but  various  intellects.  It  was 
a  memorable  illustration  of  that  state  of  society  which  Christianity 
was  destined  to  form — and  seemed  to  have  permanently  formed  in 
one  communion — in  which  men  of  many  gifts  and  diverse  races 
were  to  be  "  of  one  heart  and  one  mind."  He  found  himself  envy- 
ing that  fortunate  professor,  and  thought  of  his  own  pupils  with 
anything  but  cheerful  feelings. 

During  the  term  which  followed  shortly  after  the  incident 
referred  to,  it  was  recalled  to  his  memory  in  an  unpleasant  way. 
He  had  been  lecturing  some  freshmen  on  the  subject  of  Anglican 
Orders.  At  the  close  of  the  lecture  he  proposed  this  question  to 
be  answered  in  writing:  "Point  out  the  relations  which  exist 
between  Holy  Order  and  the  rites  of  Baptism  and  Confirmation." 
A  young  Irishman  of  great  ability,  who,  a  few  months  later,  be- 
came a  Roman  Catholic,  and  had  since  distinguished  himself  at  the 
bar,  gave  in  the  following  paper,  which  he  had  kept  as  a  curiosity 
to  the  present  day  : — 

"Privy  Council  has  decided  that  Baptism  may  either  be,  or  not 
De,  the  sacrament  of  regeneration.  The  Bishop  of  Gloucester  has 
officially  declared  that  this  decision  has  been  accepted  by  the 
English  Church.     Suppose,  then,  that  one  of  our  bishops  should 


118  THE    COMEDY    OF   CONVOCATION 

happen  to  have  missed  being  regenerated  in  Baptism,  has  the 
Church  of  England  made  any  provision  by  which  the  want  might 
be  supplied  in  after  life?  Could  the  future  bishop  contrive  to  be 
regenerated  in  any  other  way?  Would  Confirmation  supply  the 
defect?  Confirmation,  the  Church  of  England  replies,  is  not  a 
sacrament,  but  only  'a  corrupt  following  of  the  apostles.'  " 

"ARCHDEACON  JOLLY :  Just  as  the  present  Anglican  doctrine 
of  Baptism  is  "  a  corrupt  following  of  the  Privy  Council." 

THE  PROFESSOR  continued  to  read : 

"One  chance  remained  for  the  future  Bishop,  but  still,  by 
hypothesis,  unregenerate  pagan.  He  had  got  no  touch  of  Sacra- 
mental grace  from  Baptism  or  Confirmation,  but  perhaps  Ordi- 
nation would  take  the  place  of  both,  and  imposition  of  episcopal 
hands  fill  his  heathen  soul  with  celestial  life  ?  This  seemed  un- 
likely. The  ordaining  bishop  might  happen  to  be  quite  as  unre- 
generate as  himself;  and  even  if  he  were  not,  the  English  Church 
declares  of  Holy  Order,  as  of  Confirmation,  'it  is  no t  a  sacrament,' 
and  therefore  cannot  confer  sacramental  grace,  but  is  a  purely 
human  ceremony,  conveying  nothing  whatever  but  a  license  to 
preach,  and  the  honorary  title  of  Reverend.  So  that,  by  the  joint 
testimony  of  the  Articles  and  the  Privy  Council,  of  the  Prayer- 
Book  and  its  authorised  expounder,  a  man  might  come  at  length 
to  be  a  bishop,  and  indeed  was  pretty  sure  to  do  so,  who  had  never 
received  a  Christian  sacrament,  and  would  remain  to  the  end  of 
his  life  '  a  child  of  wrath '  in  lawn  sleeves,  with  a  palace,  a  peerage, 
and  five  thousand  a  year." 

This  caustic  but  humorous  freshman  added  other  equally  ingen- 
ious observations,  with  which  he  would  not  trouble  them,  and  his 
composition  terminated  as  follows :  "  What  kind  of  fact,  then,  does 
the  Times  or  the  Morning  Post  design  to  communicate  to  the 
public;  when  it  contains  such  an  announcement  as  this:  'On 
Sunday  last  the  following  gentlemen  were  ordained  priests  by  the 
Lord  Bishop  of  Southampton  ? '  Evidently  the  meaning  was : 
'The  gentlemen  enumerated  below,  who  were  probably  not  re- 
generate in  oaptism,  certainly  not  regenerate  in  confirmation,  and 
therefore  most  likely  never  regenerate  at  all,  have  received  ordina- 


IN  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH.  119 

tion,  which  itself  is  only  a  corrupt  following  of  the  apostles,  from 
a  bishop  who  is  in  precisely  the  same  condition  as  themselves.'  " 

His  friends  would  not  expect  him,  continued  the  Professor,  to 
refute  the  theological  conclusions  of  this  lively  undergraduate,  nor 
perhaps  consider  that  it  would  be  very  easy  to  do  so.  The  young 
man  called  upon  him  just  before  he  was  received  into  the  Roman 
Church,  and  the  subject  of  Orders  happened  to  turn  up  again  in 
their  farewell  conversation.  He  was  always  remarkable  for  putting 
things  in  a  pointed  way,  and  as  he  (the  Professor)  admitted  that 
English  Orders  could  not  possibly  be  divine  unless  they  were 
absolutely  indentical  with  Roman,  the  acute  Irishman  instantly 
drew  the  inevitable  conclusion  in  the  following  words:  "  Anglican 
Orders,  whatever  else  they  may  be,  cannot  possibly  be  the  same 
with  R,oman,  as  the  Anglican  Church  must  always  be  eager  to 
maintain ;  for  how  can  a  Church  which  formally  denies  that 
ordination  is  a  sacrament  either  pretend  or  desire  to  possess  Roman 
Orders,  which  the  Roman  Church  affirms  to  be  a  sacrament?  " 

ARCHDEACON  JOLLY,  who  appeared  to  be  greatly  diverted 
by  the  Professor's  anecdote,  thought  the  latter  might  have  replied 
to  his  Irish  friend,  rem  aeu  tetigisti.  They  were  certainly  indebted 
to  him  for  his  contribution  to  the  subject  of  English  Orders.  As  to 
his  argument  about  an  "  unregenerate  clergy,"  it  was  only  formid- 
able to  those  who  believed  that  grace  was  imparted  mainly  through 
sacraments.  If  that  opinion  were  tenable,  then,  indeed,  there  might 
be  good  reason  for  thinking  that  the  National  Church  was  to  a  large 
extent  a  heathen,  or  at  least  an  unregenerate  community.  Perhaps 
it  really  was  so,  though  the  time  had  not  yet  arrived  when  they  could 
all  venture  to  use  the  plaimness  of  speech  which  they  could  employ 
in  their  private  discussions.  But  it  was  evidently  coming  fast.  Two 
great  movements  were  in  progress  within  the  English  Church, 
both  introduced  and  directed  by  leading  members  of  the  clergy,  and 
each  carrying  away  in  its  swift  current  the  flower  of  the  educated 
laity.  One  tended  towards  Humanism,  the  other  towards  Mysti- 
cism. One  subjected  religion  to  the  test  of  reason,  the  other  for- 
bade reason  to  dogmatise  within  the  domain  of  faith.  One  was  in 
the  direction  of  Rationalism,  the  other  of  Popery.  These  two 
currents  were  now  running  with  such  a  full  tide,  that  philosophical 
observers  need  only  sit  down  on  the  bank  and  wait  for  the  end. 


130  THE   COMEDY    01    CONVOCATION 

At  such  a  moment  it  might  be  interesting  to  take  a  retrospective 
view  of  their  Church,  and  of  its  different  schools  and  parties,  some 
of  which  were  already  tending  to  extinction,  others  in  various  stages 
of  decay,  and  a  few  preparing  to  assume  new  forms  which  would  be 
developed  during  the  present  generation.  They  might  consider 
them  in  their  representative  types,  and  this  he  now  proposed  to  do. 
Many  years  ago,  while  he  was  a  curate  in  a  great  city,  he  had 
enjoyed  rare  opportunities  of  studying  the  amazing  variety  of  cler- 
ical types  to  be  found  in  their  community.  Even  in  his  youth  their 
constant  dissensions  had  begun  to  excite  remark,  and  to  prepare  the 
way  for  the  general  confusion  of  thought  which  had  since  prevailed, 
and  the  singular  religious  revolution  now  in  progress,  of  which  it 
was  impossible  to  foresee  the  end;  but  of  which  the  clergy  were 
themselves  the  sole  cause.  He  had  amused  his  leisure  hours  by  an 
attempt  to  depict  these  various  types,  with  each  of  which  he  was 
personally  familiar.  The  night  was  advancing,  and  their  conver- 
sation had  been  unusually  protracted,  but  nobody  seemed  to  be 
weary,  and  he  should  still  have  time  to  give  at  least  the  substance 
of  a  few  of  the  sketches  referred  to.  His  friends  would  say  whether 
they  had  the  merit  of  being  faithful  portraits,  and  whether  they 
threw  any  light  on  the  subject  of  that  evening's  discussion.  They 
had  asked  themselves  whether  English  Orders  were  human  or 
divine,  and  whoever  was  desirous  to  maintain  the  latter  hypothesis, 
— an  ambition  which  he  must  entirely  disclaim, — would  admit  that 
uniformity  of  religious  belief  and  identity  of  ecclesiastical  character 
were  inseparable  parts  of  that  idea.  A  common  divine  vocation, 
accompanied  by  special  gifts  for  a  special  object,  must  necessarily 
create,  as  it  had  actually  done  in  the  vast  Roman  communion,  an 
order  of  men  moulded  exactly  according  to  the  same  type,  teaching 
everywhere  the  same  truths,  and  ruling  their  thoughts  and  lives  by 
the  same  standard.  A  divine  vocation  implied  all  this,  and 
evidently  did  not,  and  could  not  exist,  where  these  sure  tokens  of 
its  presence  were  utterly  wanting.  Let  them  consider  then  whether 
the  infinite  variety  of  clerical  types  in  their  own  community,  of 
which  he  was  about  to  give  a  few  specimens,  could  possibly  co-exist 
with  the  hypothesis  of  a  divine  vocation. 

(The  clergy  here  disposed  themselves  in  attitudes  of  easy  atten- 
tion, and  appeared  to  feel  assured  that  if  the  Archdeacon  was  about 


IN    THE    ENGLISH    CIIURCH.  121 

to  prolong  the  sitting,  they  would  have  no  reason  for  regietting  that 
the  moment  of  departure  was  delayed.  Having  referred  to  some 
notes  which  he  held  in  his  hand,  he  proceeded  as  follows.) 

THE  HIGH  AND  DRY  CLERGYMAN.  His  own  Rector  was  the 
subject  of  his  first  sketch.  He  was  the  cousin  of  a  cabinet  minister, 
and  was  a  conspicuous  member  of  what  had  since  been  called  the 
"High  and  Dry  "  school.  As  far  as  it  was  possible  to  attribute  to 
him  any  fixed  religion  at  all,  "salvation  by  scholarship  alone"  might 
be  said  to  be  his  sole  dogmatical  conviction.  He  taught  hi3  flock 
religion  as  if  it  were  one  of  the  dead  languages,  but  a  necessary  part 
of  a  gentleman's  education.  He  published,  on  the  average,  one 
book  every  year,  of  suffocating  aridity,  and  with  such  titles  as  the 
following:  "The  Church  of  R,ome  Convicted  of  Schism  since  the 
reign  of  Queen  Elizabeth ;  "  A  new  Defence  of  the  Thirty-Nine 
Articles,"  which  he  seemed  to  think  were  always  in  need  of  fresh 
defence ;  "  Union  with  the  State,  the  Duty  of  the  Church ;"  "  Reasons 
for  not  joining  the  Society  for  the  Suppression  of  Rich  Benefices;" 
and  many  more  equally  profitable  to  mankind,  if  it  had  only  been 
possible  to  read  them.  His  church  was  frequented  by  the  educated 
and  well-dressed ;  the  few  poor,  who  were  all  pensioners  on  the 
parish  bounties,  being  stowed  away  under  the  gallery,  whence 
they  could  usefully  contemplate,  with  humble  respect,  the  religion 
of  their  superiors.  In  his  sermons,  which  he  was  constantly  print- 
ing, on  the  purely  imaginary  pretext  that  somebody  had  asked  him 
to  do  so,  he  treated  religion  as  an  anatomical  lecturer  treats  the 
human  body,  dissecting  it  with  scientific  precision,  but  always  on 
the  assumption  that  the  soul  had  fled.  Indeed,  he  seemed  to  him, 
sitting  below  in  the  reading-desk,  as  if  he  were  trying  to  persuade 
himself  that  he  had  a  religion,  but  could  not  succeed  in  doing  so. 
His  object  appeared  to  be  to  strip  religion  of  all  charm,  and  deprive 
it  of  all  interest,  in  which  he  was  uniformly  successful.  The  cruelty 
of  this  method  towards  the  women  and  children  of  the  congregation 
filled  his  own  mind  with  a  vehement  indignation  towards  his  rector, 
which  he  was  not  always  able  to  conceal.  One  felt  in  his  church — 
which  as  little  reflected  either  God  or  Nature  as  the  fossil  resembles 
the  green  leaf  or  the  gay  insect  that  waved  or  fluttered  before  the  flood, 
— as  in  a  huge  mourning  coach,  in  which  Truth, Hope  and  Peace  were 
being  carted  to  a  common  grave.  The  only  visible  purpose  of  his 
ministrations  was  to  keep  the  soul  at  its  greatest  possible  distance 


122  THE    COMEDY    OF    CONVOCATION 

from  God;  and  the  only  conviction  with  which  he  impressed  hia 
hearers  was,  that  the  Creator  had  gone  to  sleep,  and  that  the 
primary  duty  of  the  creature  was  not  to  wake  Him  up. 

THE  GOOD  AND  EASY  CLERGYMAN  was  a  more  agree- 
able type,  and  one  which  he  had  frequent  opportunities  of  studying. 
One  of  this  school  was  incumbent  of  a  large  and  fashionable  chapel, 
not  half  a  mile  from  his  own  parish  church.  His  voice  and  manner 
were  so  tender  that  he  seemed  to  be  always  on  the  point  of  making 
everybody  an  offer  of  marriage.  His  life  appeared  to  glide  away  in 
a  mild  and  amiable  conflict  between  the  claims  of  piety  and  good 
breeding.  Sometimes  his  eye  would  kindle,  and  you  would  have 
said  he  was  going  to  launch  a  rebuke  against  some  popular  sin,  but 
good  taste  came  promptly  to  the  rescue,  and  the  sinner's  sensibility 
was  gently  spared.  His  sermons  were  generally  a  tender  panegyric 
of  the  natural  virtues.  He  considered  them  in  every  aspect,  and 
drew  such  ravishing  pictures  of  the  "  devoted  mother,"  or  "  the 
Christian  at  home,"  or  "the  good  parent's  reward,"  that  people  said 
his  sermons  were  as  good  as  a  novel,  and  so  they  were.  He  was 
quite  sure  he  never  once  alluded  to  hell  during  his  whole  career, — 
the  poor  man  was  dead  now, — and  people  came  from  all  parts  of  the 
town  to  hear  him.  He  had  never  heard  him  but  once,  and  was 
bound  to  say  that  it  was  not  unpleasant  while  it  lasted,  which  was 
about  an  hour  and  a  quarter.  He  was  said  to  make  £1500  a  year 
by  his  pew  rents.  He  satisfied  the  living  members  of  his  flock  that 
they  had  "  found  the  Lord,"  or  might  do  so  whenever  they  pleased; 
and  as  to  the  dead  ones,  he  canonized  them  as  soon  as  the  breath 
was  out  of  them  with  a  facility  which  would  have  scandalised  the 
Sacred  College  at  Rome  ;  while  it  had  this  advantage  over  their 
more  cautious  methods  of  procedure,  that  where  everybody  went 
straight  to  Heaven  as  a  matter  of  course,  there  could  be  no  need  to 
hear  witnesses,  and  no  necessity  to  make  invidious  distinctions. 
He  had  also  his  own  system  of  "Indulgences,"  which  did  not 
resemble  the  Roman  one,  and  of  which  his  treasury  was  so  full,  that 
it  almost  seemed  improvident  and  ungrateful  not  to  sin,  in  order  to 
have  the  pleasure  of  enjoying  them.  He  discouraged  every  allusion 
to  doctrine,  as  not  tending  to  edification,  but  rather  productive  of 
unprofitable  controversy,  hurtful  to  that  placid  composure  of  spirit 
wuich  he  considered  the  summum  bonum  of  the  Christian  dispensa- 
tion.    What  could  it  matter  whether  Baptism  was  necessary  to 


IN  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH.  123 

regeneration,  or  the  Apostolical  Succession  a  poetical  myth,  so  that, 
as  he  often  observed,  you  preserved  "  a  calm  mind,"  and  were  chari- 
table and  tolerant  of  the  views  of  others  ?  His  idea  of  the  Almighty 
seemed  to  be  that  He  was  the  author  of  pure  taste  and  refined 
breeding,  and  sin  and  suffering  were  the  bad  manners  which  marred 
the  harmony  of  good  society.  For  this  reason  chiefly  it  would  be 
very  desirable,  if  possible,  to  get  rid  of  sin.  The  Fall,  of  which  he 
rarely  spoke, — for  how  could  such  a  congregation  as  his,  most  of 
whom  came  to  church  in  their  carriages,  be  supposed  to  have  fallen  ? 
— he  appeared  to  think  had  been  followed  by  no  results  to  speak 
of,  unless  it  were  the  emancipation  of  the  human  family  from  the 
restraints  of  a  life  too  exclusively  spiritual,  bequeathing  to  Adam's 
posterity  no  graver  hardship  than  that  of  paying  more  attention  to 
artificial  clothing  than  the  simple  state  of  society  in  Paradise 
required.  As  to  the  final  judgment,  he  seemed  to  possess  some 
secret  which  deprived  it  of  all  its  terrors ;  and  as  to  the  Judge,  he 
evidently  regarded  Him  as  the  benevolent  proprietor  of  a  celestial 
hotel,  "  replete  with  every  comfort,"  into  which  all  well-dressed 
travellers  would  be  admitted  as  a  matter  of  course,  and  where  they 
might  expect  to  enjoy  the  best  society  for  endless  ages. 

THE  AMATORY  PARSON,  whose  vocation,  if  he  had  one,  was 
very  human  indeed,  had  a  great  many  representatives.  One  of  his 
fellow  curates,  whose  father  was  a  half-pay  naval  officer,  belonged 
to  this  class.  The  Rector  never  allowed  him  to  preach  except  in 
the  afternoon,  because  that  was  the  least  frequented  of  the  three 
Sunday  services.  He  was  always  engaged,  or  said  to  be  engaged, 
to  some  pink  or  blue  bonnet  in  the  flock,  though  he  ultimately  left 
without  having  justified  the  rumour.  The  bonnet  in  question  was 
conspicuous  within  easy  view  of  the  pulpit  every  Sunday  afternoon. 
He  was  a  good-looking  fellow,  but  inconceivably  shallow  and 
ignorant.  If  English  Orders  were  ever  "divine,"  they  must  have 
ceased  to  be  so  before  poor  Horatio  White  was  ordained.  It  wa3 
really  curious  to  see  the  air  with  which  the  handsome  booby 
mounted  the  pulpit,  drew  off  his  gloves,  arranged  his  pocket  hand- 
kerchief upon  the  velvet  cushion,  satisfied  himself  by  a  rapid  glance 
as  to  the  position  of  the  bonnet,  and  then  covered  his  face  to  pray. 
What  he  prayed  for,  it  would  be  indiscreet  to  inquire.  His  sermons 
might  be  described  as  a  botanical  effort,  so  full  were  they  of  floral 
imagery,  suggesting  the  idea  that  the  surest  way  to  Heaven  was  to 


124  THE   COMEDY   OF   CONVOCATION 

cultivate  a  garden  in  a  wood,  by  the  side  of  a  rippling  stream,  and 
to  sing  in  it  by  moonlight.  His  favourite  subject  was  Heaven, 
which  he  represented  as  a  superior  sort  of  Chiswick  or  Chatsworth. 
He  appeared  to  have  been  there.  He  evidently  knew  all  about  it, 
but  it  was  rather  singular  that  he  never  once  made  the  slightest 
allusion  to  God.  There  was  a  great  deal  about  the  Angels,  but 
much  more  about  men  and  women  whom  they  had  known,  and  the 
extreme  gratification  of  meeting  them  again  under  such  agreeable 
circumstances.  His  notion  of  Heaven  seemed  to  be  that  it  was  a 
sort  of  eternal  pic-nic.  The  poor  fellow  afterwards  married  an  old 
woman  with  money,  who  led  him  a  dreadful  life.  He  had  known 
several  "  Amatory  Parsons  "  who  came  to  the  same  end. 

THE  CALVINISTIC  CLERGYMAN  was  a  very  common 
type  when  he  was  a  young  man,  and  might  be  met  with  even  now 
in  almost  every  large  town,  and  not  unfrequently  in  country 
villages.  He  should  never  forget  the  Reverend  Peter  Green, — he 
might  mention  his  name,  for  he  had  gone  long  since  to  the  Anti- 
podes, where  he  had  become  a  dignitary, — who  was  a  curate  in  a 
church  where  he  sometimes  preached  at  the  request  of  the  Rector. 
The  characteristics  of  Mr.  Green's  religion  were  gloom  and  ferocity, 
He  used  the  holiest  names  and  truths  as  if  they  were  stones  with 
which  to  pelt  his  congregation.  He  looked  as  if  he  was  always  on 
the  point  of  destroying  mankind  at  a  single  blow,  and  rather 
admired  his  own  clemency  for  not  doing  it.  The  habitual  tone  of 
his  mind  towards  the  Deity,  had  he  expressed  it  in  a  prayer,  would 
have  required  the  use  of  some  such  language  as  this:  "You  and  I 
take  precisely  the  same  view  of  these  unregenerate  sinners,  but  we 
will  strive  to  have  patience  with  them,  and  if  they  finally  refuse  to 
hear  us,  we  will  condemn  them  to  eternal  tortures."  If  he  could 
possibly  have  admitted  the  wild  suspicion  that  "  Jehovah,"  the  title 
by  which  he  always  called  Almighty  God,  differed  from  himself  on 
any  point  of  doctrine,  he  would  have  regretted  it — on  Jehovah's 
account.  He  seemed  to  be  possessed  by  a  notion  that  he  had  per- 
sonally assisted  at  the  creation  of  the  world,  as  well  as  at  the 
founding  of  Christianity.  His  sermons  were  almost  invariably 
about  "  Paul,"  and  it  was  very  remarkable  that  though  he  talked, 
often  in  a  coarse  rude  way,  about  the  work  of  the  Saviour,  he  very 
rarely  alluded  to  his  Person.  He  seemed  to  exist  in  his  mind 
only  as  the  representative  of  a  particular  gr  cup  of  doctrines.     The 


IN   THE   ENGLISH   CHUECH.  12*. 

man  evidently  thought  much  more  of  his  own  wretched  opinions 
than  of  the  Teacher  from  whom  he  professed  to  derive  them.     He 
was  particularly  given  to  expatiate  on  the  woes  of  Korazin  and 
Bethsaida,  and  almost  became  cheerful  in  anticipating  the  fate  of 
their  inhabitants.     He  spoke  of  the  Day  of  Judgment  as  if  he  had 
been  privately  consulted  about  the  arrangements  to  be  adopted  at 
that  ceremony,  and  appeared  to  feel  that  his  own  chief  enjoyment 
would  consist  in  hearing  the  sentence  of  reprobation  pronounced 
upon  the  vast  majority  of  mankind.    As  he  did  not  seem  to  believe 
many  of  the  doctrines  which  are  supposed  to  be  taught  by  the 
English  Church,  and  openly  scoffed  at  Episcopal  Ordination,  he  was 
sometimes  tempted  to  wonder  why  he  did  not  become  a  dissenter ; 
but  he  probably  felt,  like  a  good  many  other  Anglican  clergymen, 
that  it  was  more  convenient  to  be  a  dissenter  in  the  Church  of 
England  than  out  of  it.     He  had  once  the  misfortune  to  hear  him 
preach  on  a  Communion   Sunday,  and  was  much   struck  by  the. 
address  which  he  delivered  to  the  intending  communicants.     His 
whole  anxiety  appeared  to  be  to  warn  them  against  expecting  any 
possible  benefit  from  it.     He  said  nothing  of  any  kind  of  benedic- 
tion which  they  might  reasonably  hope  to  derive  from  it,  but  was 
vehement  against  the  purely  imaginary  blessings  which  he  warned 
them  not  to  expect.     In  this,  however,  he  resembled  many  other 
classes  of  the  clergy,  who  habitually  preach  against  the  use  of  this 
rite,  even  while  supposing  that  they  are  preaching  in  favor  of  it. 
In  short,  there  was  such  a  well  of  bitterness  in  this  man's  dark 
and  cruel  theology,  that  all  the  honey  of  the  religion  of  Christ 
turned  to  gall  upon  his  tongue.     The  young  disliked  and  feared 
him,  and  learned  by  degrees  to  shrink  from  all  piety,  as  if  it  were 
something  loathsome;  but  there  were. certain  women  of  middle  age, 
chiefly  disappointed  spinsters  or  soured  widows,  who  adopted  his 
ferocious  creed,  and  became  as  repulsive  and  unchristian  as  him- 
self.    If  there  was  anything  divine  in  English  Orders,  they  could 
hardly  generate  such  a  teacher  as  this ;  and  there  was  perhaps  no 
more  decisive  argument  against  that  foolish  theory,  than  that  their 
Church  had  produced,  during  many  successive  generations,  a  mul- 
titude of  such  ministers,  and  even  formed  whole  classes  of  Anglican 
society  on  the  same  revolting  type. 

> 
THE  EVANGELICAL  CLERGYMAN,— of  which  class  there 
were  two  distinct  varieties,  which   took  respectively  Luther  and 


126  THE   COMEDY   OF   CONVOCATION 

Melancthon  for  their  model, — had  been  very  useful  in  their  Church, 
at  a  time  when  the  rest  of  the  clergy  were  of  no  sort  of  use  whatever. 
It  was  almost  to  be  regretted  that  they  were  being  gradually  super- 
seded,— at  least  as  respected  their  influence  on  the  nation, — by 
newer  and  more  energetic  schools.  For  many  years  they,  and  tbey 
alone,  had  kept  alive  whatever  religious  feeling  existed  in  the 
Church  of  England.  This  was  a  service  which  should  never  be 
forgotten.  Before  Puseyism  was,  and  while  the  nation  was  still 
slumbering  after  the  horrible  stagnation  of  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries,  the  men  of  this  school  revived  the  grand  but 
almost  obliterated  ideas  of  a  Personal  God,  of  intimate  relations 
between  each  soul  of  man  and  the  Divine  Eedeemer,  of  a  religion 
of  love  and  willing  obedience.  All  honour  to  them !  They  had 
preached  great  truths  to  a  people  lying  in  darkness,  and  no  one 
could  say  that  they  had  preached  wholly  in  vain.  Why,  then,  had 
they  lost  their  power  and  pre-eminence,  so  that  teachers  of  quite 
other  views  were  everywhere  contending  with  them,  and  almost 
everywhere  with  success  ?  It  seemed  to  him  that  this  declension 
was  to  be  attributed  to  the  intellectual  feebleness  of  their  system, 
and  its  total  neglect  both  of  logic  and  history.  Much  which  they 
taught  was  true,  but  it  was  only  part  of  the  truth  ;  and  as  they 
appealed  more  to  feeling  and  emotion  than  to  either  faith  or  rea- 
son,— the  first  of  which  they  confounded  with  mere  religious 
sensibility,  and  the  second  they  scandalized  by  their  private  and 
arbitrary  interpretations  of  Scripture, — they  began  to  fail  the 
moment  they  ceased  to  be  the  only  earnest  men  in  the  nation. 
They  were,  moreover,  so  delightfully  unconscious  that  there  were 
any  other  inhabitants  of  Christendom  but  themselves,  and  refused 
with  so  much  simplicity  to  take  any  account  of  Latin,  Greek,  or 
Oriental  versions  of  Christianity,  that  when  the  so-called  "Catholic 
movement"  began  a  few  years  ago,  and  a  sudden  flood  of  light  was 
poured  into  the  caves  and  corners  in  which  they  hoped  to  dwell  alone 
forever,  they  were  amazed  to  find  that  while  other  men  could  discern 
perfectly  well  the  objects  around  them,  they  were  only  blinded  by 
this  unexpected  influx  of  luminous  fluid.  In  this  state  of  imperfect 
vision,  they  naturally  made  many  mistakes,  stumbled  rather  than 
walked,  sometimes  fell  all  their  length  on  the  ground,  and  finished 
by  becoming  extremely  ridiculous.  When  they  were  asked  what 
were  their  relations  to  the  rest  of  the  great  Christian  family,  they 
ulaimed  kindred  with  all  sorts  of  discreditable  ancestors, — obscene 


IN  THE  ENGLISH  CHUECH.  127 

Lollards,  and  noisy  Wickliffites,  and  unbelieving  Waldenses,—  and 
bo  fell  into  shame,  and  gave  their  adversaries  an  easy  victory.  He 
was  sorry  to  say  it,  but  they  were  dreadfully  narrow-minded,  and 
had  so  little  grasp  of  the  great  doctrine  of  Christian  fraternity,  that 
they  wished  to  have  a  Gospel,  a  Church,  and  a  Heaven  all  to 
themselves.  The  Puseyites, — the  best  of  whom  had  a  rich  fund  of 
playfulness  and  humour, — only  laughed  at  them,  and  very  soon 
robbed  them  of  such  of  their  disciples  as  had  any  mental  cultiva- 
tion. The  combat  between  these  two  schools  was  always  an  impar 
congressus,  and  the  Evengelicals  went  to  the  wall.  They  still  existed 
in  great  numbers ;  and  Mr.  Bennet  had  lately  insisted,  with  perfect 
truth,  though  in  contempt  of  his  own  principles,  that  they  had  as 
good  a  right  to  teach  in  the  English  Church  as  their  successful 
rivals;  but  they  had  fallen  on  evil  days,  and  their  brief  season  of 
triumph  and  authority  had  faded  away  never  to  return. 

THE  RITUALISTIC  CLERGYMAN  was  a  plant  of  recent 
growth  in  their  Church,  but  had  quickly  arrived  at  maturity. 
Whether  it  would  display  a  hardy  nature,  or  be  shrivelled,  like 
other  tender  shoots,  by  the  first  frost,  or  beaten  to  the  earth  by  the 
first  thunder-shower,  a  little  time  would  probably  show.  Mean- 
while, it  was  not  difficult  to  account  for  its  appearance.  The 
unadorned  Anglican  service,  as  they  might  venture  to  confess 
among  themselves,  since  their  congregations  had  long  ago  made  the 
same  discovery,  was  a  little  dreary.  No  one  would  think  of  describ- 
ing it  as  a  lively  way  of  spending  a  couple  of  hours.  People  in 
church  always  looked  as  if  they  had  come  with  an  honest  English 
resolve  to  get  through  an  unpleasant  duty.  They  had  made  up  their 
minds  to  face  it,  and  the  determination  did  them  credit.  But  they  gene- 
rally went  home  again  with  a  deep  sense  of  relief.  They  had  done 
their  duty,  but  were  heartily  glad  it  was  over.  He  had  heard  that  in 
New  York; many  of  the  best  seats  in  the  numerous  Catholic  churches 
were  invariably  rented  by  wealthy  Protestants,  not  because  they  had 
any  active  preference  for  Catholic  doctrine,  but  solely  because  they 
found  the  service  less  dismal  than  their  own.  In  England,  there  was 
still  too  much  dislike  to  Popery  to  allow  of  such  a  diversion.  Yet  it 
had  become  urgent  to  do  something  to  diminish  the  patient  suffering 
of  their  flocks.  The  humbler  classes,  it  was  true,  could  sleep,  and  they 
used  the  privilege;  but  a  sense  of  personal  dignity  denied  this  solace 
to  the  upper  ranks.    At  length  the  Ritualists  came  to  their  relief. 


128  THE    COMEDY    OF    CONVOCATION 

It  was  a  new  fact  in  their  history,  that  for  some  time  past  people 
had  actually  found  pleasure  in  going  to  Church !  And  they  went 
there  willingly,  no  longer  tempted  by  the  languid  excitement  of 
criticising  the  preacher,  in  whom  they  now  felt  very  little  interest. 
'They  had  found  something  more  attractive.  Cheerful  music 
borrowed  for  the  most  part  from  Catholic  sources,  had  supplanted 
the  dreary  psalm  tunes  which  nourished  their  gloomy  youth. 
Choral  singing,  bright  and  animated,  banished  all  desire  to  sleep. 
Gay  flowers  adorned  the  renovated  temple,  which  of  old  had  op- 
pressed and  chilled  the  senses  like  a  huge  family  vault.  Surplices 
had  become  of  snowy  whiteness  and  unfamiliar  shapes,  and  stoles  of 
strange  dimensions  and  unwonted  hues,  lent  a  new  grace  to  the 
ministrants.  The  communion  table  had  become  an  "  altar,"  and 
even  long  extinguished  candles  had  burst  into  light.  Instead  of  a 
solitary  cleric,  of  unimpressive  aspect,  who  looked  as  if  he  had  just 
left  a  more  agreeable  scene  and  would  be  glad  to  get  back  to  it, 
a  decorous  procession  of  comely  youths  preceded  the  ministers,  who 
contrived  to  be  as  numerous  as  possible,  and  carefully  avoiding  the 
lax  gestures  and  unmortified  looks  of  the  cathedral  clergy,  moved 
writh  studied  gravity  to  their  appointed  seats,  amid  the  loud  peal- 
ing of  the  organ.  It  was  evident  that  care  and  forethought  had 
presided  at  these  arrangements,  and  while  a  certain  expression  in 
the  faces  of  the  clergy  appeared  to  say  to  the  congregation, — "  We 
flatter  ourselves,  this  will  meet  with  your  approval ;  "  a  cheerful 
look  of  contentment  seemed  to  respond  for  the  people, — "You  de- 
serve it,  for  you  have  relieved  our  Sunday  of  half  its  gloom." 

If  the  Ritualists  had  been  content  with  this  peaceful  success,  they 
would  have  been  hailed,  at  least  by  the  educated  classes,  as  bene- 
factors, and  they  would  have  deserved  the  title.  It  was  surely  no 
mean  triumph  to  have  made  the  English  Sunday  almost  tolerable. 
But  it  soon  became  apparent  that  they  had  othei  objects  in  view. 
It  was  no  longer  enough  that  the  surplice  shoulc  be  of  unspotted 
purity,  unless  it  were  also  covered  with  a  decorated  ^  estment,  familiar 
in  Catholic  churches  but  utterly  unknown  in  their  own,  of  which  the 
fashion  and  colour  varied  with  the  feast,  and  symbolised,  to 
discerning  eyes,  the  Saint,  the  Virgin,  or  the  Martyr  of  the  day. 
The  "  altar,"  too,  must  now  be  approached  with  bended  knee,  because 
it  was  no  longer  the  seat  of  the  simple  and  homely  rite  which  had 
contented  their  uninstructed  fathers,  but  of  "  Tremendous  Mys- 
terys"    and  an    "August   Sacrifice."      Censers   of  gold  or  silver 


IN  THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH.  129 

must  lend  their  aid,  and  waft  clouds  of  incense  through  choir  and 
nave,  which  for  three  centuries  had  been  perfumed  with  meaner 
odours.  And  doctrine  kept  pace  with  ritual,  or  rather  outstripped 
it.  The  people  were  now  told  that  the  Real  Presence  was  the 
central  object  of  Christian  devotion,  the  Daily  Sacrifice  the  highest 
expression  of  Christian  worship.  Sacramental  confession  was  the 
surest  remedy  for  sin  in  this  world,  and  the  safest  pledge  of  forgive- 
ness in  the  next.  Protestantism  was  an  abomination,  and  the 
English  nation  was  assured  that  it  had  always  been  Catholic  with- 
out knowing  it.  The  Reformation  was  a  trifling  historical  incident, 
of  hardly  any  real  importance,  and  the  best  thing  they  could  do 
was  to  forget  it.  The  Church,  by  her  own  nature,  was  incapable 
of  error ;  but  as  she  had  unfortunately  been  under  a  cloud  for  a 
good  many  centuries,  a  few  English  clergymen  had  undertaken  to 
perform  her  functions  until  further  notice.  Such  were  the  principal 
chapters  of  the  new  Ritualistic  catechism. 

A  certain  number  of  hearers  approved  these  ideas  as  true  m 
themselves,  without  pausing  to  consider  in  what  place  they  heard 
them,  or  by  what  lips  they  were  uttered.  But  a  far  larger  number 
vehemently  declined  to  embrace  them.  The  latter  might  be  divided 
into  three  classes.  The  first  only  laughed,  and  thought  the  whole 
affair  an  indifferent  comedy,  played  by  actors  who  had  not  learned 
their  parts.  The  second  were  indignant,  threw  dust  into  the  air,  and 
talked  about  "  treason  against  the  Church  of  England."  The  third, 
more  thoughtful  and  judicious,  took  a  deeper  view  of  the  whole  sub- 
ject, and  replied  to  the  Ritualists  in  such  terms  as  the  following : 

"The  doctrines  which  you  teach  are  either  true  or  false.  On  the 
latter  hypothesis  they  need  not  be  discussed ;  but  if  you  can  prove 
them  to  be  true,  you  will  have  proved,  at  the  same  time,  that  the 
Church  of  England  is  the  most  guilty  of  all  Christian  communities. 
You  affirm  that  they  are  divine,  and  therefore  necessary  to  salva- 
tion; yet  many  successive  generations  of  men,  taught  by  the  English 
Church  or  her  appointed  ministers,  lived  and  died  in  utter  igno- 
rance of  them,  knowing  only  that  by  her  formularies,  and  by  the 
mouths  of  her  bishops  and  clergy,  she  had  mocked  and  derided 
them,  and  taught  the  whole  nation  to  do  the  same.  They  may  be 
true  in  themselves,  as  you  insist;  but  if  they  are,  the  Church  of 
England,  as  you  cannot  refuse  to  admit,  is  a  synagogue  of  Satan, 
and  most  of  her  members  are  now,  and  ever  have  been,  in  foul 
heresy  and  in  the  shadow  of  death. 


130  THE   COMEDY   OF   CONVOCATION' 

"  Sc  much  for  the  effect  of  your  new  teaching  on  the  Church  \o 
which  you  profess  to  belong ;  let  us  next  consider  it  in  relation  to 
yourselves.  If  your  doctrines  are  true,  as  you  assert,  why  do  we 
find  you  patiently  continuing  in  a  Church  which  has  permitted 
them  to  be  blasphemed  in  the  past,  and  in  daily  communion  with 
a  clergy  who  revile  them  in  the  present  ?  Do  you,  or  do  you  not, 
in  the  full  exercise  of  your  liberty,  communicate  in  sacris  with 
men  who  call  that  devilish  which  you  call  divine?  and,  if  so,  in 
what  do  you  differ  from  them,  except  in  this,  that  they  have  the 
excuse  of  holding  errors  which  they  believe  to  be  true,  while  you 
have  the  infamy  of  countenancing  doctrines  which  you  proclaim  to 
be  false?  By  your  own  confession,  their  position  is  at  all  events 
better  than  yours.  They  are  simply  heretics  without  suspecting  it, 
while  you  refuse  to  separate  from  the  heresy  which  you  affect  to 
regard  with  horror.  If  the  Reformation  was  a  disaster,  why  do 
you  consent  to  minister  in  a  Church  which  has  always  approved  it  ; 
and  if  the  Catholic  theology  be  true,  why  do  you  refuse  obedience 
to  the  Church  which  has  always  taught  it  ?  Why  are  you  Cath- 
olics in  condemning  the  Church  of  England,  and  Protestants  in 
resisting  the  Church  of  Rome?  Be  one  thing  at  a  time,  and  tell 
us,  whether  you  belong  to  any  Church  at  all,  or  whether  you  be- 
lieve yourselves  to  be  the  Church,  and  that  all  mankind  should 
learn  wisdom  from  you  ? " 

The  Ritualist,  who  had  a  right  to  speak  on  his  own  behalf,  replied 
after  this  manner:  "I  call  myself  a  Catholic  priest,  because  I  am 
either  that  or  a  ridiculous  impostor,  and  I  object  to  be  considered 
in  that  light.  I  claim  the  power  of  the  Keys,  because  they  belong 
to  the  priestly  office,  and  I  will  not  allow  that  the  clergy  of  any 
other  Church  have  more  power  than  I  have.  I  can  consecrate  the 
Host,  though  I  am  not  quite  sure  what  that  means,  because  I  should 
be  only  a  Protestant  minister  if  I  could  not,  and  a  Protestant 
minister  is  the  object  of  my  contempt.  I  can  absolve  from  sin, 
though  the  English  clergy  never  knew  they  could  do  it,  because  the 
commission  was  given  to  somebody,  and  therefore  it  must  have  been 
given  to  me.  I  teach  the  Church  of  England  what  she  ought' to 
hold,  and  instruct  the  Church  of  Rome  what  she  ought  to  retract, 
because  I  clearly  perceive  the  deficiencies  of  the  one,  and  detect 
the  excesses  of  the  other.  I  assert  that  my  doctrines  are  part  of 
God's  truth,  but  I  communicate  with  those  who  flatly  deny  them, 
because,  when  I  am  taunted  with  this,  I  can  always  reply  that  it  ia 


IN   THE    ENGLISH    CHURCH.  131 

the  mark  of  a  self-willed  man  to  seek  another  communion  in  crder 
to  quiet  his  conscience.  I  countenance,  by  remaining  in  the  Church 
of  England,  all  the  mortal  heresies  which  have  ever  existed  in  her, 
but  I  tell  my  accusers  that  I  only  remain  in  her  in  order  to  remove 
them.  I  am  in  communion  with  no  Church  in  the  world,  but  I 
invite  them  all  to  come  into  communion  with  me,  and  indicate  the 
terms  on  which  I  will  permit  them  to  do  so.  I  am  not  in  schism, 
though  I  dwell  in  solitude,  because  the  other  Christian  bodies 
obstinately  refuse  to  associate  with  me ;  and  I  am  not  in  heresy, 
though  I  every  day  communicate  with  heretics,  because  I  do  it 
only  for  their  good.  I  do  not  obey  my  bishop,  but  I  propose  to 
him  to  obey  me,  which  he  foolishly  declines  to  do.  All  Churches 
have  erred,  but  I  am  ready  to  teach  them  all,  if  they  will  only 
listen  to  me;  and  though  the  perfect  idea  of  Christianity  has 
perished  from  the  earth,  I  am  able  to  restore  it  at  any  moment, 
whenever  I  shall  be  requested  to  do  so.  I  remain  in  the  Church 
of  England,  though  she  allows  most  of  her  clergy  to  teach  lies,  be- 
cause I  do  not  choose  to  quit  her ;  and  I  refuse  to  enter  the  Church 
of  Rome,  though  she  forces  all  her  priests  to  teach  truth,  because 
I  do  not  choose  to  obey  her.  I  prefer  to  obey  myself,  because  I 
find  no  other  authority  worthy  to  be  obeyed ;  and  though  I  admit 
that  this  position  has  its  disadvantages,  I  must  positively  decline 
to  exchange  it  for  any  other." 

THE  SENSATIONAL  CLERGYMAN,  the  last  on  his  list,  was 
much  more  common  at  the  present  day  than  when  he  was  a  young 
man.  He  was  simply  a  product  of  the  law  of  supply  and  demand. 
He  was  wanted,  and  therefore  he  came  into  being.  All  large  towns 
possessed  at  least  one  specimen  of  him,  but  it  was  in  fashionable 
watering  places  that  he  found  his  most  congenial  home.  Brighton 
was  his  paradise,  and  he  reigned  as  a  king  at  Leamington  and  Br.th. 
His  sermons  were  published  every  Monday  morning,  and  sold  for' a 
penny.  It  was  apparently  on  their  titles  that  the  largest  amount  of 
thought  was  expended.  They  were  sometimes  as  full  of  delight- 
ful and  provoking  mystery  as  those  of  the  fashionable  novels. 
Perhaps  this  was  their  chief  merit,  as  they  generally  promised  a 
good  deal  more  than  they  gave;  but  you  did  not  find  that  out  till 
you  had  paid  your  penny.  He  was  in  the  habit  even  now  of  cheer- 
fully sacrificing  that  sum,  when  he  happened  to  be  at  the  sea-side, 
not  because  he  cared  to  read  such  sermons,  but  simply  for  the  sake 


132  THE   COMEDY   OF   CONVOCATION 

of  seeing  what  some  people  would  accept  as  spiritual  instruction. 
In  that  point  of  view  they  were  curious  and  instructive. 

He  remembered  on  one  occasion  actually  hearing  a  sermon  of 
this  kind  at  Brighton.  He  had  persuaded  a  French  friend,  well 
known  in  the  literary  circles  of  Paris,  to  accompany  him,  though  he 
had  some  difficulty  in  doing  so.  The  preacher  was  always  famous 
for  his  oratorical  successes,  and  the  rapt  attention  of  the  audience 
proved  that,  at  least  in  their  opinion,  he  fully  deserved  his  reputa- 
tion. "  Qu  en  pensez  vousf"  he  said  to  his  friend,  as  they  walked 
away  together  from  church.  "  Vous  nrrC  avez  jovA  un  mauvais  tour," 
was  the  prompt  reply ;  "  c'  etait  d'un  imbecile  incroyablc." 

The  sole  design  of  the  "sensational"  clergy  was  evidently  to 
present  religious  truths,  or  what  they  considered  to  be  such,  in  a 
startling  and  unexpected  form.     They  seemed  to  have  no  higher 
purpose  than  to  make  the  public  talk,  first  about  their  sermons,  and 
then  about  themselves.    And  it  was  not  to  be  denied  that  they  "had 
their  reward."     If  people  once  came  to  like  such  sermons,  it  seemed 
to  him  in  the  nature  of  things  that  they  should  like  them  more  and 
more.     The  only  difficulty,  as  in  so  many  other  cases,  must  lie  in 
the  first  step.     No  one  knew  this  better  than  the  preacher  himself. 
If  the  congregation  once  took  his  bait,  he  was  too  skilful  an  angler 
to  let  the  fish  escape.     The  very  air  with  which  he  launched  his 
net  showed  his  confidence  in  his  own  art.     The  moment  he  mounted 
his  pulpit,  and  cast  a  glance  over  the  shallow  sea  below  him,  the 
incubus  of  his  huge  conceit  fell  upon  you  like  a  weight.     Ho  knew, 
indeed,  how  to  assume  an  expression  of  elaborate  humility,  but  the 
mask  was  transparent  to  all  save  those  who  were  under  the  spell, 
and  came  only  to  admire.     To  others  he  was  inexpressibly  divert- 
ing, though  a  few  minutes  sufficed  to  exhaust  the  entertainment. 
If  he  had   ever   taught   the   Catechism, — which  he  would  have 
disdained   to  do, — he  would    have    comprehended   it  all   in   one 
question  and  answer.     "  How  many  sacraments  are  there?  " — "  One 
only  as  indispensably  requisite  to  salvation,  and  that  is  to  listen  to 
Me."     And  for  this  reason,  because  he  claimed  the  whole  undivided 
homage  of  his  congregation,  he  nourished  an  almost  savage  hatred 
against  Eitualists  of  every  school.     They  were  his  only  formidable 
rivals.     Sacraments,  Ritual,  and  choral  singing,  were  but  odious 
accessories  of  religion,  which  presumed  to  intrude  their  offensive 
attractions  between  him  and  his  admirers.    A  sensational  preacher 
at  Liverpool  began  a  sermon,  a  few  years  ago,  in  a  church  which 


IN   THE   ENGLISH    CHURCH.  133 

was  not  his  own,  by  a  vigorous  extempore  assault  upon  the  choral 
Bervice  just  concluded.  He  evidently  thought  it  indecent,  though 
he  gave  other  reasons  for  his  displeasure,  that  "singing  men  ani 
women"  should  divide  with  him  the  interest  of  the  congregation. 

He  (Archdeacon  Jolly)  had  frequently  observed,  in  the  course  of 
a  career  which  rati  through  half  a  century,  that  no  vanity  was  so 
exorbitant  and  insatiable  as  clerical  vanity.  There  were,  as  every- 
body knew,  sincere  and  modest  ministers,  who  thought  much  more 
about  their  message  than  about  themselves,  but  he  was  speaking 
now  of  types  to  whom  this  praise  did  not  belong.  He  had  been  at 
various  times  amused  or  pained  by  the  fatuity  of  artists,  of  musi- 
cians, of  literary  men,  and  of  other  sensitive  and  irritable  tribes  ; 
but  he  knew  no  fatuity  which  could  be  compared  with  that  of 
preachers.  Perhaps  the  dangerous  peculiarities  of  their  position 
accounted  for  the  exceptional  development  of  this  vice.  Other 
orators  spoke,  as  a  rule,  to  men,  and  were  constrained,  as  far  as 
their  gifts  allowed,  to  speak  with  sobriety  and  good  sense.  But 
with  an  audience  chiefly  female,  every  one  of  whom  was  gazing  upon 
you  with  two  eyes  far  more  eloquent  than  your  own,  and  disposed 
to  give  you  credit  for  all  the  gifts  with  which  their  lively  imagina- 
tion could  invest  you,  a  weak  and  foolish  man  became  inevitably 
weaker  and  more  foolish.  Indeed,  he  not  unfrequently  became  a 
mere  conceited  driveller,  and  learned  to  think,  and  to  persuade  ad- 
miring ladies  to  agree  with  him,  that  the  success  of  Christianity 
was  mainly  due  to  the  fact  that  he  consented  to  preach  it.  Texts 
of  Scripture  which  a  rational  being  would  read  on  his  knees  were 
only  used  by  him  to  round  a  sentence,  and  mysteries  of  which 
saints  would  speak  in  a  whisper  were  profaned  to  adorn  a  climax. 
The  Saturday  Review  had  well  expressed  this  fact,  though  he  could 
only  quote  the  passage  from  memory.  Comparing  the  English  with 
the  continental  clergy,  it  observed  that  ••  the  latter  were  too  much 
absorbed  in  what  they  preached  to  have  any  recollection  of  them- 
selves, while  the  former  were  too  much  absorbed  in  themselves  to 
contemplate  any  higher  subject." 

It  was  a  natural  result  of  their  mode  of  handling  sacred  themes, 
and  of  constantly  talking  about  their  own  convictions,  that  preachers 
of  this  class  fell  far  below  even  the  popular  standard  of  religious 
reverence.  Anxious  above  all  things  to  identify  their  paltry  per- 
sonality with  everything  they  preached  about,  and  always  putting 
themselves  between  the  truth   and  the  hearers  whose  view  they 


134  THE   COMEDY   OF   CONVOCATION 

totally  obstiucted,  these  men  grew  always  incurably  pio/ane,  from 
the  habit  of  talking  lightly  and  impertinently  about  things  they' 
neither  felt  nor  understood.  And  yet  such  persons  as  these,  and 
numbers  of  them,  who  would  have  ignominiously  failed  in  any  other 
calling  than  that  of  preaching  to  women,  were  really  a  power  in  this 
country  !  They  might  be  tracked  all  round  her  coasts ;  for  though 
they  contrived  to  nourish  in  the  denser  atmosphere  of  the  capital 
'  and  of  other  great  cities,  they  were  especially  a  sea-side  plant,  and 
required  the  culture  of  feminine  hands  for  their  full  development, 
and  reached  their  highest  stature  in  the  midst  of  those  languid  and 
otiose  populations  which  seek  their  recreation  by  the  shores  of  the 
great  sea.  Their  names  were  heralded  in  the  weekly  columns  of 
the  local  papers,  along  with  the  fashionable  arrivals,  the  projected 
entertainments,  and  other  topics  of  inferior  interest.  Their  hours 
of  preaching  were  announced  as  carefully  as  those  of  the  railway 
departures.  They  professed  all  sorts  of  creeds,  which  was  a  great 
convenience  to  the  inhabitants,  who  were  thus  enabled  to  cultivate 
whatever  form  of  religion  suited  their  tastes,  while  all  continued 
equally  attached  members  of  the  same  National  Church.  Some- 
times it  would  happen  to  one  of  them  to  be  outstripped  by  his 
rivals  in  the  race  for  popularity,  and  it  was  curious  that,  in  these 
cases,  they  all  adopted  the  same  plan  for  recovering  the  favour 
which  seemed  about  to  desert  them.  To  announce  a  new  course  of 
sermons  against  Popery,  with  large  placards  displayed  in  the  shop 
windows,  or  carried  about  in  the  places  of  public  resort,  was  always 
a  sure  resource  against  impending  disgrace.  They  all  had  to  try  it 
in  turns,  and  it  succeeded  with  all.  He  once  heard  the  opening 
sermon  of  such  a  series.  It  was  preached  by  a  man  who  had  con- 
trived to  obtain  a  Master's  degree  at  Cambridge,  and  it  lasted 
exactly  one  hour  and  sixteen  minutes.  It  was,  of  course  exclusively 
on  the  subject  of  the  Roman  Catholic  religion,  of  which  the  preacher 
knew  simply  nothing,  but  gave  an  account  which  would  have  been 
absurd  and  calumnious  if  he  had  been  describing  Buddhism  or 
Mormonism.  And  yet  the  man  spoke  with  an  affected  tenderness 
and  regret,  and  so  melodiously  withal,  that,  although  his  odious 
Blanders  merited  only  the  scourge  or  the  pillory,  his  hearers 
evidently  thought  it  an  exercise  of  sweetest  charity  to  prove  that 
the  Christians  of  all  past  ages,  and  three-fourths  of  those  now  liv- 
ing, were  criminals,  idiots,  and  idolaters.  Stupid  and  guilty  as  the 
preacher  was,  his  congregation,  who  gave  him  their  silent  applause, 


IN   THE   ENGLISH   CHURCH.  135 

wore  worthy  of  such  a  pastor.  For  his  own  part,  the  sermon 
brought  to  his  recollection  some  of  his  Roman  Catholic  friends, 
whose  opinions  he  was  not  able  to  adopt,  but  who  were  as  superior 
to  this  frothy  babbler  in  intellect  and  attainments  as  they  were  in 
rational  piety  and  profound  conviction. 

He  would  only  add,  without  further  details,  that  he  regarded 
the  sensational  clergyman  as  one  of  the  prime  religious  nuisances 
of  the  day,  requiring  prompt  and  vigorous  suppression,  especially 
on  account  of  the  irreparable  evil  which  he  wrought  on  the  female 
mind  and  character.  But  the  clock  had  just  caught  his  eye,  and 
warned  him  to  conclude.  Many  additional  types  and  sub-types  of 
the  English  clergy  would  be  found  among  the  sketches  in  his  port- 
folio, but  he  should  weary  his  friends  if,  at  so  late  an  hour,  he 
attempted  to  go  through  the  entire  series.  He  would  ask  their 
permission  to  make  a  single  reflection,  and  so  bring  his  remarks  to 
an  end. 

They  had  considered  in  the  debate  of  that  evening,  whether 
English  Orders  were  human  or  divine;  and  the  discussion  had 
naturally  branched  into  the  collateral  inquiry,  whether  the  English 
clergy  were  Catholic  priests  or  Protestant  ministers.  The  sketches 
which  he  had  presented  were  his  own  contribution  to  the  solution 
of  both  these  questions.  Their  Church  now  numbered,  he  believed, 
about  sixteen  thousand  teachers  of  all  classes ;  and  though  it  would 
be  an  exaggeration  to  affirm  that  they  professed  sixteen  thousand 
different  religions,  it  would  certainly  be  difficult,  if  not  impossible, 
to  find  any  two  of  them  in  the  same  parish  who  held  exactly  tha 
same  views  on  even  the  highest  truths  of  the  Christian  revelation, 
while  their  differences  ranged  through  the  whole  vast  field  between 
Arianism  on  the  one  side,  and  Ptomanism  on  the  other.  If,  then, 
a  national  clergy,  of  whom  no  two  could  be  forced,  in  any  town  or 
village  of  England,  either  by  free  enquiry,  or  ecclesiastical  per- 
suasion, or  state  authority,  to  unite  in  a  common  belief,  and  who 
often  differed  from  one  another  as  widely  as  the  limits  of  human 
opinion  permitted,  were  nevertheless  recipients  of  the  same  mys- 
terious and  constraining  grace,  flowing  directly  from  the  august  rite 
of  ordination,  and  infused  into  the  soul  by  a  special  divine  operation, 
expressly  to  produce  a  uniform  habit  of  mind  and  heart,  and  a 
uniform  conception  of  religious  truth ;  he  would  simply  ask,  what 
must  they  think  of  Christianity  or  of  its  Author?  Could  any 
supposition  be  more  fatally  injurious  to  either?     If  the  Almighty, 


136  THE   COMEDY   OF   CONVOCATION 

in  instituting  the  supernatural  rite  in  question,  chiefly  that  ihe 
world  might  be  convinced  by  the  apostolic  life  and  indissoluble 
unity  of  its  teachers,  had  only  succeeded  in  creating,  as  in  their 
own  land,  a  clergy  notorious  for  living  just  as  the  world  around 
them  lived,  and  whose  perpetual  dissensions  about  the  most  sacred 
dogmas  of  religion  were  a  scandal  to  themselves,  and  a  stupefaction 
even  to  their  enemies ;  he  did  not  see  how  they  could  resist  the 
inevitable  conclusion,  that  Christianity  was  as  purely  human  in  its 
nature  and  results,  as  its  English  teachers  had  ever  been  in  every 
feature  of  their  lives,  and  in  every  characteristic  of  their  ministry. 

(The  company  now  left  their  seats,  and  gathered  in  a  confused 
group  round  Dr.  Easy,  who  had  been  standing  during  the  previous 
speech  with  his  back  to  the  fire.  Some  had  already  extended  their 
hands  to  bid  him  farewell,  when  he  indicated  by  a  sign  that  he 
desired  to  speak.) 

DPt.  EASY  said  he  could  not  permit  his  friends  to  depart,  as 
they  now  manifested  their  intention  to  do,  without  thanking  them 
both  for  their  attendance  on  that  occasion,  and  for  the  part  which 
they  had  taken  in  a  discussion  of  great  interest  and  importance. 
He  would  not  abuse  his  privilege  as  their  host  by  adding  to  the 
discourse  of  the  Archdeacon  more  than  a  few  brief  words.  They 
had  arrived,  he  supposed,  at  a  common  conviction  on  the  two  great 
questions  of  Authority  in  the  Anglican  Church,  and  the  real  char- 
acter of  her  Orders.  It  was  at  once  their  wisdom  and  their  safety 
to  insist  that  both  were  purely  human.  Any  other  theory,  as  the 
Archdeacon  had  clearly  proved,  would  expose  not  only  themselves 
but  their  common  Christianity  to  contempt  and  ruin.  Either  ordi- 
nation, as  it  existed  in  the  English  Church,  was  not  a  rite  intended 
to  produce  a  supernatural  effect,  except  in  a  sense  which  might 
with  equal  justice  be  applied  to  the  orders  of  Mr.  Spurgeon  or  Mr. 
Newman  Hall;  or,  if  it  was,  the  reformed  and  Protestant  ministry 
established  by  Elizabeth  and  inaugurated  by  Parker,  which  had 
never  displayed  the  faintest  trace  of  any  such  effect,  was  a  failure 
so  portentous,  that  they  must  remain  forever  silent  in  the  presence 
of  any  scoffing  infidel  who  should  use  it  as  an  argument  against 
the  truth  of  Christianity. 

He  trusted,  therefore,  that  they  were  about  to  separate  that 
night  with  this  practical  conclusion,  that  the  idea  of  a  Catholic 


IN  THE  ENGLISH  CHURCH.  137 

Priesthood,  one  in  doctrine  and  divine  in  endowments,  existing  in 
the  English  Church,  was  not  only  a  contradiction  of  her  whole 
history,  but  absolutely  inconsistent  with  the  belief  that  Christianity 
was  true.  Either  that  foolish  notion  must  be  abandoned,  or  they 
must  honestly  admit  that,  at  least,  the  English  Church  was  a  delu- 
sion. For  if  any  man  could  deliberately  maintain,  as  a  small  party 
among  them  desired  to  do,  that  the  entire  body  of  the  English 
clergy  had  been,  from  the  beginning,  a  supernatural  caste,  though 
it  was  undeniable  that  they  had  always  exactly  resembled  the 
laity  in  all  their  habits,  principles,  and  actions;  that  they  had 
received  a  special  vocation  from  heaven  to  teach  the  same  unvary- 
ing doctrine,  though  no  two  of  them  could  ever  agree  together  what 
that  doctrine  was ;  that  they  possessed  the  faculty  of  retaining  or 
remitting  sin,  though,  for  three  centuries,  they  had  never  once 
attempted  to  use  it,  and  had  bitterly  derided  the  assumption  of  it 
by  the  clergy  of  another  community;  that  they  were  clothed,  by 
the  transforming  grace  of  Orders,  with  angelic  purity  and  virginity, 
though  they  and  their  bishops  had  ever  been  even  more  impatient 
of  a  life  of  continence  than  any  other  class  of  human  society ;  that  they 
were  able  to  call  down  God  upon  a  human  altar,  though  their  own 
founders  began  their  career  by  pulling  down  altars,  and  their  own 
tribunals  ruled  that  the  English  Church  denied  their  existence; 
that  the  chief  function  of  their  ecclesiastial  life  was  to  offer  the 
daily  sacrifice,  though  the  Church  of  England  had  carefully  ob- 
literated every  trace  of  that  mystery  from  the  national  mind  ;  and 
finally,  that  the  highest  spiritual  privilege  of  their  flocks  was  to 
adore  the  consecrated  Host,  though  their  own  Prayer-book  ex- 
pressly declared  that  such  worship  was  "idolatry  to  be  abhorred 
of  all  faithful  Christians :  "  if,  he  said,  any  man  could  seriously 
affirm  the  series  of  propositions  here  enumerated,  and  many  more  like 
them,  he  should  be  ready  to  admit,  what  it  would  no  longer  be 
possible  to  deny,  that  neither  religion  nor  history  had  any  real 
meaning,  and  that  modern  Christianity  had  been  more  fertile  in 
childish  conceits  and  preposterous  delusions  than  any  system  ot 
heathen  mythology  with  which  he  was  acquainted. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  they  were  content  to  believe  with  the 
whole  nation,  that  the  English  clergy  were  simply  the  representa- 
tives of  the  English  Reformation  ;  that  they  were  Protestant  min- 
isters, not  Catholic  priests;  that  they  were  distinguished  in  nothing 
from  other  men,  except  as  having  undertaken  to  remind  them  from 


138  THE   COMEDY   OF   CONVOCATION   IN   THE    ENGLISH   CHURCH. 

time  to  time  of  truths  which  all  were  too  apt  to  forget;  they 
would  then  assume  the  only  character  which  really  belonged  tc 
them,  or  in  which  either  their  own  communion  or  any  other  would 
ever  consent  to  recognise  them.  In  that  case,  they  would  no 
longer  expose  either  themselves  or  their  religion  to  the  world's 
contempt,  nor  unwittingly  furnish  the  unbeliever  with  a  fatal  argu- 
ment against  the  truth  and  the  reasonableness  of  Christianity. 
The  Church  of  England  had  never  been  the  home  of  the  Super- 
natural, as  all  mankind  knew  from  her  own  history  ;  and  to  try  to 
introduce  so  strange  an  element  into  such  a  receptacle  would  be  a 
far  more  dangerous  experiment  than  to  "  pour  new  wine  into  old 
bottles."  They  might  as  well  attempt  to  inclose  the  lightning 
which  could  shiver  rocks,  in  the  hands  of  an  infant,  as  to  make  the 
English  Church  the  shrine  of  mysteries  which  she  had  existed  only 
to  deny. 

(General  cheering,  which  brought  the  remarks  of  Dr. 
Easy  to  an  end;  and  the  company,  shortly  after, 
separated.) 


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